1. Kath Upanisad Joseph Nadin Rawson OUP

10, 11

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163

when it has come to the end of a blade of grass draws itself together for the next step, so with the soul. . . . Whereto one's mind is attached—the inner self goes thereto. Obtaining the end of his action, whatever he does in this world, he comes again from that world, to this world of action. But as for the man who does not desire. Being very Brahman, he goes to Brahman.” Then comes the verse quoted Katha vi. 14, and then the passage on the unity of Brahman as given above, continuing in verse 20—

“As a unity only It is to be looked upon—

This undemonstrable enduring being.”

The passage culminates in the famous saying, “That self is not this, not that” (Sa eṣa ātman neti neti).

Whereas however the Br. passage above makes rebirth (or rather re-death) dependent on desire, this passage traces it back to the very perception of plurality or difference. The doctrine of non-duality could not be stated more emphatically than in these two verses: “Death after death he obtains who sees (things) as if different here”.

It is curious that with such an emphatic statement of non-difference should be coupled the saying, “By mind indeed This is to be obtained” (manasā eva idam āptavyam). If the word “idam” (this) may be interpreted, as Hume interprets it, as meaning “this truth”, then there is no difficulty. But Śaṅkara interprets ‘idam’ as ‘Brahman’, and Hume also in the parallel passage Br. iv. 4. 19 interprets in the same way.

“By the mind alone is It to be perceived” (T.P.U. 143).

Our text then is parallel to Katha vi. 9, and teaches that Brahman is knowable by the mind,—not a lower Brahman but the Brahman in whom there is no difference. Yet how the mind can know a pure undifferentiated unity is unintelligible.

Śaṅkara tries to get out of the difficulty by saying, “Before the knowledge of the oneness by the mind prepared by the spiritual teacher and scripture, This, i.e. Brahman, the one essence, should be obtained,—(through such scripture passages as) ‘There is the Self alone, nothing else exists’. When obtained, through the removal of Ignorance (avidyā), which is the cause of the perception of difference, then here, i.e. in the

164 THE KATHA UPANIṢAD 11-13

Brahman, there is no difference whatsoever, not even the slightest." (Continued below).

अङ्गुष्ठमात्रः पुरुषो मध्य आत्मनि तिष्ठति ।

ईशानो भूतभव्यस्य न ततो विजुगुप्सते । एतद्वै तत् ॥ १२ ॥

अङ्गुष्ठमात्रः पुरुषो ज्योतिरिवाधूमकः ।

ईशानो भूतभव्यस्य स एवाद्य स उ स्वः । एतद्वै तत् ॥ १३ ॥

12. Anguṣṭha-mātraḥ puruṣo madhye ātmani tiṣṭhati;

Īśāno bhūta-bhavyasya

na tato vijugupsate: Etad vai tat.

13. Anguṣṭha-mātraḥ puruṣo

jyotir-iva adhūmakah;

Īśāno bhūta-bhavyasya

sa eva adya sa u svah : Etad vai tat.

12c. Some Mss. have īśānam.

Reassertion of the identity of the individual and the Supreme Self : The anguṣṭha-mātra puruṣa is the eternal Lord.

12. A person on the size of a thumb

Stands in the midst of the body :

Lord of the past and the future :

Therefore one does not seek to hide :1

This truly is that.

13. A person on the size of a thumb

Like a flame devoid of smoke :

Lord of the past and the future,—

Alpha and Omega He :2 This truly is that.

1 Or, From Him one does not shrink away.

2 Or, literally, He is (the same) today and tomorrow.

Śaṅkara's position has been represented as similar to that of Herbert Spencer. Just as Spencer maintained that one can know of the existence of the infinite and absolute though otherwise it is unknown, so it is said Śaṅkara maintained

11-13

FOURTH VALLĪ

165

that we can know the existence of the One though we cannot

know anything about it except that it is One. This however is

not a fair statement of Śaṅkara's position: if an agnostic he

is of the type of Mansel rather than Spencer: that is to say,

he holds that while Brahman is not provable by reason Its

existence and unity are known by the mind of the prepared

seeker through scripture and a qualified spiritual teacher. This

knowledge is however only preliminary,—it so dispels investing

Ignorance that the light of Brahman's own self-manifestation is

able to shine in the seeker's soul producing not merely intellec-

tual knowledge but an immediate realisation of oneness with

the Supreme. (See later note on vi. 12.) At bottom he is

a mystic, though His mysticism sometimes finds strangely

agnostic expression.

12, 13. The term aṅguṣṭha-mātra puruṣa ("person the

size of a thumb"), occurs in the Taittirīya Āraṇyaka x. 38, 1;

Kaṭha iv. 12, 13; vi. 17 ; Śvet. iii. 13 ; v. 8 ; Maitri vi. 38 ;

Mahānārāyaṇa xvi. 3. See also Mahābhārata, Vana Parvan, line

16765 (Calcutta edn.), where in the story of Sāvitrī we are

told,

Tatah Satyavatah kāyāt, pāśabaddham vaśaṅgatam,

Aṅguṣṭha-mātram puruṣam, niṣcakarṣa Yamo balāt.

"Then from the body of Prince Satyavān,

Yama with his grim force extracted out,

A person of the measure of a thumb,—

Bound with his snare and brought in his control."

The thumb-sized person here referred to is obviously the

individual soul, called "thumb-sized" because it is conceived

of as occupying the cavity of the heart. It is said to stand

madhye ātmani,—ātman here clearly meaning the body.

Śaṅkara discusses the meaning of these two verses in his

Sūtra-bhāṣya I. 3. 24, 25. The question at issue is, Is the

person described as aṅguṣṭha-mātra the individual or the highest

Self? It is natural at first sight to take it as referring to

the individual soul for how can the supreme self which is

infinite be said to be of the size of a thumb ? But then

the person here referred to is spoken of as "Lord of the past and

future". Moreover the words "This verily is that" expressly

identify it with the Supreme Self. Our passage teaches then

166 THE KAȚHA UPANIṢAD 12, 13

that the soul which is said to be the size of a thumb is in reality Brahman. Rāmānuja and Nimbārka agree but add that the highest self can be called thumb-sized because He dwells in the heart of the worshipper.

Perhaps the better way of stating it is to say that the “thumb-sized person is primarily the individual soul but it is here taught that this is not a separate entity in each creature but is the antaratman,—the one eternal Self present in each individual. So the Upaniṣad ends with the verse : (vi. 17) :

A person of the measure of a thumb,

The inner-self, dwells in each creature's heart :

So from the body one should draw it forth

As from its sheath one firmly draws a reed :

Then know that as the deathless and the pure.

We remarked at the beginning of the valli on the difference between vallis iii and iv. Valli iii spoke of two selves. Valli iv sets forth a doctrine closely akin to the single self theory which is so prominently associated with the name of Yājña-valkya, and it is perhaps significant that it borrows very largely from the Bṛhadāraṇyaka, or draws from the same material.

Lord of the past and the future,—Alpha and Omega He: the

last clause translated literally reads, “ He alone is to-day, and also to-morrow ” (sa eva adya sa u śvaḥ), and is a quotation from Br̥. i. 5. 23. Cf. Rev. i. 8. The one Self is not viewed as a timeless absolute (as with Śaṅkara) but as Lord and ruler of the time-order. This comes out even more strikingly in Br̥. iv. 4. 15, 16 with which 12. c.d. is connected.

At whose feet time rolling on,

In years and days goes by ;

Whom as light of lights the gods,

Adore as immortality :

On whom the fivefold host of living things,

And also space depend,—

Him know I, being wise, as my own soul,

Immortal, the immortal Brahman.

14, 15

FOURTH VALLĪ

167

यथोदकं दुर्गे वृष्टं पर्वतेषु विधावति ।

एवं धर्मान् पृथक् पश्यन्स तानेवानुविधावति ॥ १८ ॥

यथोदकं शुद्धे शुद्धमासिक्तं तादृगेव भवति ।

एवं मुनेर्विजानत आत्मा भवति गौतम ॥ १९ ॥

Yathā’udakaṃ durge vrṣṭaṃ

parvateṣu vidhāvati,

Evaṃ dharmān prthak paśyaṃs

tān-eva’nuvidhāvati.

Yathā’udakaṃ śuddhe śuddham

āsiktam tādrg [eva] bhavati,

Evaṃ muner vijānata

ātmā bhavati Gautama.

Perception of multiplicity and unity, and their results.

As water rained upon a height

Runs various ways among the hills,

So he who views things as diverse

Distractedly runs after them.

Just as pure water into pure

Poured forth, becomes the very same,—

So, Gautama, becomes the soul

Of the sage who really knows.

Height: Hume, “rough ground ” ; durga means a place where it is

difficult to go. Here it must mean a mountain ridge from which rain-

water flows in different directions.

Dharmān prthak paśyan : He who views things as diverse.

Hume : He who sees qualities separately, runs to waste after them.

Deussen : He who attends to sense-impressions as distinct existences

himself runs after them.

Śaṅkara: He who sees dharmān, i.e. different selves as separate, i.e.

different in each separate body, runs after them only, responsive to

the variety in the bodies,—i.e. again and again he obtains a separate

body.

168

THE KAṬHA UPANIṢAD

14, 15

The interpretation turns on the meaning of dharmān. The

various meanings of dharma are discussed in connection

with ii. 13 (page 96). Philosophically we said dharma means

the characteristic quality or nature of anything. Here we take

it the meaning is, He who views the natures of things (and

therefore things themselves) as quite separate, etc. Śaṅkara

limits the things to ‘selves’ but the text is more general. It

insists on the necessity of perceiving the unity of law and

nature among the apparently quite separate individual things

(and selves) of experience, otherwise there is not only intellec-

tual error but moral distraction and running to waste. (If this

is too much to read into anuvidhāvati we believe that it

represents the spirit of the passage.) The continual warnings

of the Upaniṣads against pluralism are wearisome repetitions if

regarded only as the enunciation of a metaphysical monism :

we only understand them if we credit the writers with some-

thing of the moral and religious feeling which animated

Xenophanes and the Hebrew prophets in their protest against

polytheism.

15. This verse attempts to describe through a simile the

state of the soul when liberated through true knowledge (i.e. of

oneness with the Supreme Self). Does it become identical with

the Supreme ? Yes says Śaṅkara,—the perception of difference

due to the limiting conditions (which are the product of

Ignorance) having been destroyed then, “Just as pure water

poured into pure becomes just such (tādṛg eva), i.e. completely

of one essence and not otherwise (eka-rasam-eva na anyathā) so

also the soul of the sage, i.e. the man practised in meditation,

who knows the oneness, becomes just similar (evam-eva bhavati).”

The nature of the simile seems to favour Śaṅkara’s interpretation

of tādṛg eva and therefore we have translated it as “the very

same”. Literally however it means simply “just such” or

“exactly similar”.

The interpretation given by Rāmānuja and Nimbārka is not

therefore excluded by this verse,—i.e. the view that the liberat-

ed soul is non-different (i.e. not in any way separate—prthak)

but not metaphysically identical with the Supreme. It is one

with Him in will and nature (except that it does not share His

14, 15

FOURTH VALLĪ

169

power of ruling the world), but not identical in a sense that would exclude the supreme bliss of the contemplation of the perfection of the Supreme Lord. (See Vedānta-sūtra-bhāṣya iv. 4. 17-22.)

With our verse we may compare Mundaka iii. 2. 8 :

Even as rivers flowing to the ocean

Merge in it and relinquish name and form,

Just so the wise, from name and form delivered,

Attains unto the highest, heavenly Person.

Prima facie this also teaches the merging of identity. Yet the highest being is conceived theistically. The oneness therefore cannot be that of bare identity but must permit of personal relationship.

It is interesting to note that a Christian mystic with so ardent a personal religion as Bernard of Clairvaux could use a simile like that of our text and say: “As a drop of water poured into wine loses itself and takes the colour and savour of wine, so in the saints all human affections melt away, by some unspeakable transmutation, into the will of God. For how could God be all in all if anything merely human remained in man ? The substance will endure, but in another beauty, a higher power, a greater glory.”

St. Theresa also says, “Spiritual marriage is like rain falling from the sky into a river, becoming one and the same liquid, so that the river water and the rain cannot be divided; or it resembles a streamlet flowing into the ocean, which cannot afterward be dissevered from it ”.

“Lord, we are rivers running to Thy sea,

Our waves and ripples all derived from Thee :

A nothing we should have, a nothing be,

Except for Thee.”

—Christina Rosetti.

170

॥ पञ्चमी वल्ली ॥

पुरमेकादशद्वारमजस्यावक्रचेतसः ।

अनुष्ठाय न शोचति विमुक्तश्च विमुच्यते । एतद्वैतत् ॥ १ ॥

ऋंसः सुपिषदसुरततरिच्चसद्रोता वेदिषदतिथिर्दुरोणसत् ।

नृषद्वरसदृतसत्सदव्योमसद्, अब्जा गोजा ऋतजा अद्रिजा ऋतं बृहत् ॥ २ ॥

Pañcamī Vallī.

1. Puram ekādaśa-dvāram

ajasyā_avakra-cetasah ;

Anuṣṭhāya na śocati

vimuktaś-ca vimucyate. Etad vai tat.

2. Hamsaḥ śuciṣad vasur antarikṣa-sad,

hotā vedi-ṣad atithir durona-sat ;

Nr-ṣad vara-sad rta-sad vyoma-sad,

ab-jā go-jā rta-jā adri-jā rtam brhat.

FIFTH VALLĪ.

The Lord of the city of the body is Lord of the world.

1. There is a city of eleven gates,

Owned by the unborn uncrook’d intelligence :

By ruling it one does not grieve,

And being freed is freed indeed.

This truly is that.

2. The swan in the sky, the Vasu in space,

The priest at the altar, the guest in the house : 1

In men and their betters, in right and the sky,—

Born in water and earth, born in right and in rock,

is the Right and the Great.

1 Or, jar.

The Fifth Valli simply reinforces the argument of the fourth

that the soul of each individual is not a separate soul but is the

one eternal Ātman dwelling in each individual as Inner-self

1, 2

FIFTH VALLĪ

171

(antarātman). The later verses of the vallī, however (from v. 12), seem to depart from the one soul theory, and, at least provisionally, speak of two souls,—the antarātman being spoken of as ātma-stha (standing in the soul) : an apparent return to the standpoint of the third vallī.

1. The eleven-gated city : Bunyan, in his Holy War, describes the human soul as living in a city with five gates, i.e. the five senses. So in the Gītā (v. 13) we are told that, “Renouncing with the mind all (attachment to the results of) works, the embodied soul sits happily as master in the nine-gated city”. The nine gates of the body there referred to are the two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, mouth, anus and generative opening. The other two to make up eleven are the navel and sagittal suture (vidrti),—the opening at the top of the skull, perceptible only in children, through which the liberated soul is supposed to escape at death.

The uncrooked intelligence (avakra-cetas) : uncrooked, i.e. upright, righteous. By implication there must exist, at least in appearance, crooked, perverted (human) intelligences. This verse however says nothing of such. It apparently assumes that there is only one Self eternal and perfect, which is Lord of all bodies, directly, without viceregents.

Renderings of the second half of the verse vary according to the meaning given to anuṣṭhāya. Anu+sthā means (1) to stand near, (2) to perform, practise, (3) to rule, govern. Śaṅkara takes a modification of the second meaning and interprets anuṣṭhāya as dhyāteva. “Anuṣṭhāya means contemplating that Highest Lord, the master of the city.” Following him we should translate, “Contemplating (or meditating on) Him one does not grieve.” Like Hume however we prefer the third meaning, which gives a more natural construction, the object being puram.

We take the verse as resuming the theme of iv. 1, and to some extent also reconciling it with that of the Parable of the Chariot. The senses “pierced outward” are not merely openings from which the soul must turn away; they are like the gates of a city through which its Lord receives influences from the outer world and through which also he acts upon it. As by controlling the gates the Lord of a city dwells in happy peace, secure from attack, so the soul, controlling the senses, is free from sorrow, being free from insurgent desire.

172

THE KATHA UPANISAD

1, 2

This is the true freedom which begins even here and leads after death to complete release from the task of controlling a body.

2. This verse, except the last word, occurs Rg Veda iv. 40. 5, and in full in the Taittirīya Samhitā of the Black Yajur Veda, i. 8. 15; iv. 2. 1; the Vājasaneyī Samhitā of the White Yajur Veda, v. 24; xii. 14; and the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, vi. 7. 3. 11.

As quoted in the Śatapatha B. the passage refers to the triune Agni who is identified with the Sun in heaven, Vāyu (wind) in the interspace, and dwells on earth both as the divine priest (symbolised by the sacrificial fire) and as the guest in the homes of men (atithir duronasat).

Here in our text the triune Agni, the supreme energy that sums up all the gods, all the powers of the universe, is implicitly identified with Brahman, who is the universal Ātman.

Śaṅkara says : The Self is not a dweller in one city only but dwells in all cities. He is hamsa (the swan), i.e. the mover, ātucasat—dwelling in the clear (sky) as the Sun (Āditya). He is the Vasu (so called because he animates all) dwelling in the interspace (antarikṣa) as the Wind (Vāyu). As a priest (hotā), i.e. as Agni at the altar, i.e. on earth. As a guest, i.e. Soma, he is called durona-sat, i.e. dwelling in a jar; or else duronasat may mean that he dwells in houses as Brahmin guests. Nṛsat—dwelling in men; varasat—dwelling in betters, i.e. gods (Śatapatha says vara=space); ṛtasat—dwelling in ṛta, i.e. truth (satya) or the sacrifice (yajña), vyomasat—dwelling in the sky or ether. Ab-jāh—born in water in the form of conches, whales, etc.; go-jāh—born of earth as rice and barley, etc.; ṛta-jāh—born as adjuncts of the sacrifice (yajñāṅga); adri-jah—rock-born, born of mountains as rivers. Though the soul of all yet he is ṛtam—i.e. of unchanging nature, and because he is the cause of all he is called bṛhat—great. The meaning of the mantra is that the all-pervading Soul of the world is only One and there is no distinction of self (ātmā-bheda).

Apart from the interpretation of ṛta-jāh, which we have rendered “born in right” we have on the whole followed Śaṅkara. Keith renders ṛta—“holy order” and Eggeling—“ law ”. “ Right ” is intended as including these two meanings, for ṛta in the Ṛg Veda signifies that sacred Law or order of the world which is both true, i.e. dependable, and right, i.e. morally good.

2 See Keith : Veda of the Black Yajus School, Vol. I. 127, II. 308.

3 See Eggeling : The Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, part III (S.B.E. XLI), p. 281.

ऊर्ध्व प्राणमुन्नयत्यपानं प्रत्यगस्यति ।

मध्ये वामनमासीनं विश्वे देवा उपासते । ॥३॥

अस्य विश्रंसमानस्य शरोरस्थस्य देहिनः ।

देहादिमुच्यमानस्य किमत्र परिशिष्यते । एतद्वै तत् ॥४॥

न प्राणेन नापानेन मर्त्यो जीवति कश्चन ।

इतरेण तु जीवन्न्ति यस्मिन्नेतावुपाश्रितौ । ॥५॥

Ūrdhvaṃ prāṇam unnayati,

apānaṃ pratyagasyati ;

Madhye vāmanam āsinaṃ

viśve devā upāsate.

Asya visramsamānasy

śarīrasthasya dehinah ;

Dehād vimucyamānasy

Kim atra pariśisyate.

Etad vai tat.

Na prāṇena nāpānena

martyō jīvati kaścana ;

Itareṇa tu jīvanti

yasminn_etāv upāśritau.

Upward the outbreath he leadeth,

The inbreath downward he casts :

The dwarf who is seated in the midst

All the devas do worship.

When this embodied soul that dwells

Within the body, is unloosed

And from the body is set free,—

What is there here that then remains ?

This truly is that.

Not by outbreath nor by inbreath

Does any man whatever live,

But by another do they live

On which these (life-breaths) both depend

174 THE KAṬHA UPANIṢAD 3-5

3. Prāṇa and Apāna: i.e. the life-breaths or vital powers. Prāṇa is a word of very varied meaning. Originally it meant “breath”, then “life”, and was also, even as early as the Atharva Veda, used as a name for the Supreme Being (so=Ātman). In the early Upaniṣads all the vital powers (e.g. speech, breath, eye, ear, manas) are called prānāḥ. Then a distinction is made between the prānāḥ, as forces of unconscious life, and the indriyāṇi and manas,—the forces of conscious life. The prānāḥ are distinguished as five,—prāṇa, apāna, vyāna, samāna, udāna (e.g. Br. iv. 5. 3; Taitt. i. 7). These are sometimes looked upon as varieties of breath and sometimes as powers presiding over different parts of the body. When prāṇa is used alone it usually means “breath” (both inspiration and expiration), but when used with apāna it generally means expiration, while apāna means inspiration. Apāna also came to mean the “wind” or power of digestion and evacuation. For a fuller discussion see Deussen, P.U. 274-280.

The dwarf (vāmana): another name for the aṅguṣṭha-mātra puruṣa, i.e. the embodied self. This person within, “nearer to us than breathing” is the Supreme Being whom all the gods or nature powers worship. Śaṅkara however interprets “all the devas” as the senses and vital powers (prānāḥ) which are subject to the person within who is their Lord and worship him by their uninterrupted activity on his account. In any case the main point of the verse is that it leads on to v. 5.

4. “Here”, i.e. in the body. Śaṅkara answers, “Nothing remains”. For when the soul leaves it, then this assemblage of causes and effects we call the body becomes powerless and perishes. But atra may equally mean there or then. What remains after the soul is freed from the body? Just the one Self,—the dehin or embodied soul is one with the universal Soul (sarvātman). “This is that.”

5. This verse may have in view the Buddhist doctrine of anattā (an-ātmān) that what we call a person is only an assemblage of parts, but is more likely to refer to the Cārvāka doctrine.1 Śaṅkara says, the theory may be urged that man lives only by the life-breaths, etc. and is destroyed by their exit,—that a man, like a house, is a combination of parts. But a house does not exist for itself but for one who directs the combination of its parts. So the bodily powers are not self-explanatory: they depend on and exist for another,—the Soul.

1 See Vedāntasāra vi, J. 77. Also Introduction, 43.

6, 7

FIFTH VALLĪ

175

हन्त त इदं प्रवच्यामि गुह्यं ब्रह्म सनातनम्।

यथा च मरणं प्राप्य आत्मा भवति गौतम ॥ ६॥

योनिमन्ये प्रपद्यन्ते शरीरत्वाय देहिनः।

स्थानुमन्येऽनुसंयन्ति यथाकर्म यथाश्रुतम् ॥ ७ ॥

Hanta te idam pravakṣyāmi

guhyam brahma sanātanam;

Yathā ca maraṇam prāpya

ātmā bhavati Gautama.

Yonim anye prapadyante

śarīratvāya dehinah;

Sthānum anye 'nusaṃyanti,

yathā karma yathā śrutam.

The Eternal yet Transmigrating Soul.

Come then, to you I will declare

This hidden Brahman everlasting;

And also, after reaching death,

How the soul fares, o Gautama.

Some souls go forth into a womb,

Unto a new embodiment;

Some enter stationary things :

According to their knowledge and their deeds.

6, 7.

Soul (v. 6)=ātman; Souls (v. 7)=dehinah.

The soul or self (ātman) which in its essential nature is one with Brahman, becomes a dehin (owner of a deha or body).

How this occurs is nowhere clearly stated.

Embodiment is not, as with Śaṅkara, an illusion.

"In the Upaniṣads we have, on the one hand the constant efforts to show that there is but one self, and on the other hand the reality of the individual self is constantly insisted on."

(Keith, R.P.W. 552.)

But embodiment having occurred, souls go on after death to new embodiment—yathā karma—in accordance with their deeds.

As Br. iv. 4. 5, says, in one of the earliest statements of the doctrine of transmigration, yathā karma tathā bhavati,—"as one acts so one becomes".

Our verse mentions only two of the kinds of possible embodiment,—as men and trees.

For a fuller statement see Chānd. v. 10. 7 and Kauṣ. i. 2.

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8

The nature of rebirth is also said to be "according to knowledge" (Kauṣ. i. 2, yathā vidyām, here yathā śrutam), since knowledge is largely determinative of deeds. True knowledge however, of the kind here communicated, leads beyond all rebirth.

We have taken dehinah as nom. pl. agreeing with anye. (So Śaṅkara) Hume takes as gen. sing. "Some go into a womb for the embodiment of a living being." (So apparently also Deussen and Max Müller.)

य एष सुप्तेषु जागर्ति कामं कामं पुरुषो निमिमायः ।

तदेव शुक्रं तद्ब्रह्म तदेवामृतमुच्यते ।

तस्मिल्लोकाः श्रिताः सर्वे तदु नात्येति कश्चन ॥ ८ ॥

Ya eṣa supteṣu jāgarti,

kāmaṁ kāmaṁ puruṣo nirmimānāḥ;

Tad eva śukraṁ tad brahma,

tad eva amṛtam ucyate.

Tasmin lokāḥ śritāḥ sarve,

tad u na atyeti kaścana.

Etad vai tat.

The Inner Soul is ground of the world.

He who is awake in the sleeping,

The person who fashions desire on desire,—

That is the Pure : That is Brahman :

That indeed is called the Immortal :

On that do all the worlds depend;

Beyond it none soever goes.

This truly is that.

The Upaniṣads hold that the oneness of the individual with the supreme Self is more manifest in the sleeping than in the waking state. See for example Chānd. vi. 8. 1, where svapiti—"he sleeps" is connected with svam apīta—"he has entered into himself" : "When it is said that the man is asleep, then has he attained to union with the self-existent". Moreover dream-consciousness is regarded as a proof of the existence of the Ātman. In sleep the prānāḥ—all the bodily powers, are laid to rest. What is it then that remains active ?

"Striking down in sleep what is bodily,

Sleepless he contemplates the sleeping (organs)."

9, 10

FIFTH VALLĪ

177

"There are no chariots there, no teams (of horses), no roads, but he creates for himself chariots, teams, roads. There are no blisses there or pleasures or delights, but blisses, pleasures, delights he creates for himself" (see the whole passage, B.A.U. iv. 3).

Desire on desire (kāmam kāmam) : Kāma primarily means desire but here as in i. 24. 25, "objects of desire", probably as in the B.A.U. passage just quoted, "dream objects of desire". Sankara, commenting on nirmimānạh, i.e. fashioning or creating, adds avidyayā, "by Ignorance". Rāmānuja however objects. Dream-objects, like the objects of our waking consciousness, are creations of the Supreme Person and are only māyā, not in the sense of illusion but in the sense of "wonderful".

अग्निर् यथैको भुवनं प्रविष्टो रूपं रूपं प्रतिरूपो बभूव ।

एकस्तथा सर्वभूतान्तरात्मा रूपं रूपं प्रतिरूपो बभूव ॥९॥

वायुर् यथैको भुवनं प्रविष्टो रूपं रूपं प्रतिरूपो बभूव ।

एकस्तथा सर्वभूतान्तरात्मा रूपं रूपं प्रतिरूपो बभूव ॥१०॥

Agnir yathā_eko bhuvanam praviṣṭo,

rūpam rūpam pratirūpo babhūva,

Ekas tathā sarva-bhūta-antarātmā,

rūpam rūpam pratirūpo bahiś-ca.

Vāyur yathā_eko bhuvanam praviṣṭo,

rūpam rūpam pratirūpo babhūva,

Ekas tathā sarvabhūtantarātmā,

rūpam rūpam pratirūpo bahiś-ca.

The One Inner-soul : Immanent yet Transcendent.

As Fire, though one, having entered the world,

Adapts itself in form to every form,

So the one Inner-soul of every being,

Enwrapped in every form is yet outside.

As Air, though one, having entered the world,

Adapts itself in form to every form,

So the one Inner-soul of every being,

Enwrapped in every form is yet outside.

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THE KATHA UPANISAD

9, 10

9, 10. Rūpam rūpam pratirūpo babhūva : literally, “Has become the counterform of every form” so also line d.: “Is the counterform of every form and is outside”.

This is a quotation from Ṛg Veda vi. 47. 18, the famous Māyā verse,

Rūpaṃ rūpaṃ pratirūpo babhūva,

Indro māyābhiḥ pururūpa īyate.

It tells, how, in his conflict with the demons,

“Indra went multiform through his magic powers.

He became the counterform of every form.”

The thought of the passage is, however, probably more based on Ṛg x. 51. 1-3, which tells how Agni, fearing to be injured by continual use in sacrificial worship, hid himself in animals and plants, assuming their forms.

The interest of this verse lies in its teaching of the immanence and yet the transcendence of the Supreme Self. The thought is evidently a development of Ṛg Veda x. 90 (the Puruṣa-sūkta), where it is said

“The Person had a thousand heads,

A thousand eyes, a thousand feet :

He filled the earth on every side

Yet stood ten-fingers’ length beyond.

Such is his greatness, and yet more

Than all this is the Puruṣa :

All beings are one-fourth of him ;

Three-fourths immortal in the heaven.”

The Śvetāśvatara develops the thought by quoting the Puruṣa-sūkta and saying,

“By him, the Person, this whole world is filled”

“Who utterly transcends this world.” (Śvet. iii. 9. 10.)

Śaṅkara says, Bahiś-ca,—svēna avikṛtena rūpeṇa, ākāśavat.

That is to say, The Self, like the ether assumes many forms and yet is outside them in its own unmodified nature. This implies that all modification is in appearance only. But this surely is going beyond the text which intends to preserve transcendence while at the same time teaching immanence.

11

FIFTH VALLĪ

179

सूर्यो यथा सर्वलोकस्य पच्तुर्न लिप्यते चाक्षुर्बैग्बाह्यदोषैः।

एकसथा सर्वभूतान्तरात्मा न लिप्यते लोकदुःखेन बाह्यः॥११॥

11. Sūryo yathā sarva-lokasya cakṣur,

na lipyate cākṣuṣair bāhya-doṣaih,

Ekas tathā sarvabhūtāntarātmā,

na lipyate loka-duḥkhena bāhyah.

The Impassive Self, untouched by the world's pain.

11. Just as the Sun, the eye of all the world,

Is not defiled by outward faults of vision,

So the one Inner-soul of every being

Is touched not by earth's pain, being outside it.

11. Sankara says, “If one is the Ātman of all he may be

regarded as subject to the grief of samsāra, therefore this is

said. As the sun, manifesting unclean things like dung, is not

tainted by their outward visible faults, so the one inner Self of

all is not tainted hy the misery of the world, being outside it.

For the world, by ignorance (avidyā) superimposed on the

Ātman, experiences misery arising from desire and karman, but

that is not really in the Ātman: just as a snake superimposed

on a rope (by mistaken imagination) does not really exist as a

blemish in the rope. Thus the world having superimposed on

the Ātman the false notion of deed, agency and fruit of action

(kriyā-kāraka-phala) suffers thereby the misery of birth, old-

age, death, etc. But the Ātman, although the soul of all the

world, is not tainted by the misery of the world through such

false attribution: because like the rope he is external to the

false notion imposed upon him.”

We quote this explanation more because it is so character-

istic than because we consider it gives a correct interpretation

of our text. Sankara denies the reality of the world's misery :

it is an illusion. The Upaniṣad admits its reality though it

denies that it touches the Self. Sankara's teaching here is

based on his acosmism. He denies not only the world's pain

but the world itself except as a creation of Ignorance. The

teaching of the Katha, though it sometimes seems to

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THE KATHA UPANISAD

11, 12

follow the one soul theory (the absolute idealism of Yājña-valkya which is the precursor of Śaṅkara’s teaching), is on the whole a panentheism more akin to Rāmānuja’s teaching, in which the world, including individual souls, constitutes the body of Brahman, while Brahman is antarātman, not as being the only self, the sole real existence, but as the Self within all selves, their innermost reality (see ātma-stha next verse).

To return to our text. It does not deny pain and misery, and it may have been written about the time when another Gautama, the Buddha, saw in duḥkha,—human suffering, the one great indubitable fact which bulked so large it almost shut out the vision of all else. Our text however denies that human suffering (loka-duḥkha) touches (literally “smears”) that Supreme Being who is also our inner-self. May not such teaching have been one reason why Buddha found no use for God or the ātman. A reality transcendent in this sense was too out of touch with the desperate facts of life to be of any practical value.

The doctrine of the impassiveness of God has infected most theologies. Even Christian theology took it over from Aristotle and counted Patripassianism a heresy : and this spite of the teaching of the Old Testament that “In all our afflictions He was afflicted”, and of the New, that the cross of Christ is not merely an event in time but is the manifestation of the eternal spirit of God.

एको वशी सर्वभूतान्तरात्मा एकं रूपं बहुधा यः करोति ।

तमात्मस्थं येऽनुपश्यन्ति धीरास्तेषां सुखं शाश्वतं नेतरेषाम् ॥ १२॥

नित्यो नित्यानां चेतनश्चेतनानामेको बहूनां यो विदधाति कामान् ।

तमात्मस्थं येऽनुपश्यन्ति प्रान्त्तः प्राशन्तो नेतरेपाम् ॥ १३ ॥

12. Eko vaśī sarvabhūtāntarātmā, ekam rūpam bahudhā yah karoti,

Tam ātma-stham ye 'nupaśyanti dhīrās teṣām sukhaṃ śāśvataṃ naitareṣām.

Nityo nityānāṃ cetanaś cetanānām eko bahūnāṃ yo vidhatti kāman,

Tam ātma-stham ye 'nupaśyanti prāṇtaḥ prāśanto netareṣām.

12, 13

FIFTH VALLĪ

181

13. Nityo ’nityānām cetanaś cetanānām,

eko bahūnām yo vidadhāti kāmān,

Tam ātmastham ye ’nupaśyanti dhīrās

teṣām śāntiḥ śāśvatī na itareṣām.

13. Some Mss.: Nityo nityānām.

The Vision of God within the soul leads to eternal bliss.

12. The One Controller, Inner-soul of all things,

Who makes his one form manifold,—

The wise who see Him, standing in the soul,

They and no others have perpetual joy.

13. Eternal mid the transient, Conscious mid the conscious,

The One amid many who grants their desires,—

The wise who see Him, standing in the soul,

They and no others have perpetual peace.

12. The One Controller (Eko vaśī): This title is a name for

the supreme Self only occurs here and Śvet. vi. 12, but it goes

back in thought to Br̥. iv. 4. 22. “Verily He is the great, un-

born Soul, who is this (person) consisting of knowledge among

the senses (prāṇaḥ). In the ether within the heart lies the

Controller of all, the Lord of all, the King of all.” (Sarvasya

vaśī, sarvasya īśanaḥ, sarvasya adhipatiḥ.) Our verse is repro-

duced in Śvet. vi. 12 with the first two lines in the following

form :—

“The One Controller of the inactive many,

Who makes the one seed manifold.”

Standing in the soul (Ātma-stha) :

Here surely we have a clear reversion to the two soul stand-

point,—Brahman being regarded as the Inner-soul of our

individual souls. It is true that ātman sometimes means

“body”. Śaṅkara, while desiring to uphold the one soul stand-

point, denies that it means “body” here. He explains it

as meaning the Self manifest in the form of intelligence in the

buddhi (conditioned intellect) in the ether within the heart.

(Tam ātmastham—sva-śarīra-hr̥dayākāśe buddhau caitanya-

ākāreṇa abhivyaktam iti etat). This explanation, however,

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THE KATHA UPANISAD

13

ultimately involves his illusion doctrine, which, as Rāmānuja remarks, makes nonsense of the Vedas (see Śrībhāṣya ii. 3. 42, Thibaut 561, 2). Supporting his contention that individual souls stand to the Supreme in a bhedābheda relation, i.e. are eternally distinct but not separate, Rāmānuja several times quotes Katha v. 13 (see Śrībhāṣya i. 1. 4; ii. 3. 43).

13. We have translated verse 13 literally keeping the order of the original, but the sense is perhaps better rendered in Thibaut's translation, “He who, one, eternal, intelligent, fulfils the desires of many, non-eternal, intelligent beings ”. Better still, “grants (or disposes) the objects of desire,” (taking kāmān objectively as in i. 24, 25; v. 8). Deussen sees in this a doctrine of Divine providence. (P.U. 212.)

Cetanaś-cetanānām—“Conscious mid the conscious”, “Intelligent mid the intelligent”. Śaṅkara says, The intelligence of other conscious beings, beginning with Brahmā is due to the intelligence of the Ātman (ātma-caitanya-nimittena). Yet elsewhere he denies intelligence of a conscious character to the supreme Brahman.

Returning to our discussion of ātma-stha, we have surely in these verses a doctrine which is not Absolutism nor mere Pantheism but something analogous to the Christian doctrine of the Spirit. We hope to discuss this more fully elsewhere. Here we will only ask whether it is fanciful to compare Śvet. vi. 6, which continues the thought of our passage, “Know Him who stands within the soul, the immortal abode of all”, with i John iv. 13,—“Hereby know we that we abide in Him and He in us, because He hath given us of his Spirit.” There are of course important differences, but there is surely also an equally important agreement.

तदेतेदिति मन्यन्ते निर्देशं परमं सुखम् ।

कयं नु तद्विजानौयां किमु भाति विभाति वा ॥ १८ ॥

1 See note on cit, Vedāntasāra, Introductn. Jacob 3-5 or Rawson, Gist of the Vedānta.

14, 15

FIFTH VALLĪ

183

न तत्र सूर्यो भाति न चन्द्रतारकं नेमा विद्युतो भान्ति कुतोऽयमग्निः ।

तमेव भान्तमनुभाति सर्वं तस्य भासा सर्वमिदं विभाति ॥१५॥

Tad etad iti manyante

'nirdeśyaṃ paramaṃ sukham;

Kathañ ñu tad vijānīyām,

kim u bhāti vibhāti vā.

Na tatra sūryo bhāti, na candra-tārakaṃ,

na iṃā vidyuto bhānti, kuto 'yam agniḥ;

Tam-eva bhāntam anubhāti sarvaṃ,

tasya bhāsā sarvaṃ idaṃ vibhāti.

14.d. One Ms. : na bhāti vā.

The Light of the World.

“This is that”—thus they recognise,

The supreme indescribable bliss.

How then may I come to know this ?

Does it shine, or does it reflect ?

There shines not sun, nor moon, nor any star;

These lightnings shine not, how then could this fire ?

Him, the resplendent, everything reflects,

His shining only all this world illumines.

Recognising that this, the Inner-soul, the Dweller in the innermost, the Spirit, is that supreme Reality of which they are in search, the wise or steadfast taste supreme bliss. But how can one know the supreme Reality ? Ordinary knowledge takes place when objects reflect back the light of the mind. Is the Supreme Being such an object or do those who have been prepared know it through its own self-luminous manifestation ? (N.B.—This involves taking vibhāti here as equivalent to anubhāti—reflect.)

No earthly light can illumine the Supreme for He is the source of all light. So our knowledge cannot find Him out except as He communicates himself as “the master-light of all our seeing.” Cf. Revelation xxi. 23.

184

॥ मछो वस्सो ॥

ऊध्वमूलोऽपि शुमूलः रपोडवल्यः सनातनः ।

तदेव शुक्रं तद् ब्रह्म तदेवामृतमुच्यते ।

तस्मिंल्लोकाः श्रिताः सर्वे तदु नात्येति कश्चन ।

एतदैतत् ॥ १॥

यदि दं किंच जगत्सर्वे प्राप्य एजति निःश्रतम् ।

मच्छद्रयं वच्यवहतं य एतदिदुरमतास्ते भवन्ति ॥

भयादस्याग्निस्तपति भयात्तपति सूर्यः ।

भयादिन्द्रश्व वायुश्च मृत्युर्धावति पञ्चमः ॥ ३ ॥

Saṣṭhī Vallī.

1. Ūrdhva-mūlo 'vāk-śākhā

eso 'śvatthah sanātanah;

Tad-eva śukraṃ tad brahma

tad-eva amrtam ucyate,

Tasmin lokāḥ śritāḥ sarve,

tad-u na atyeti kaścana :

Etad vai tat.

2. Yad idam kiñca jagat sarvam

prāṇe ejati niḥsṛtam;

Mahad bhayam vajram udyatam;

ye etad vidur amṛtās te bhavanti.

3. Bhayād asya agnis tapati,

bhayāt tapati sūryaḥ;

Bhayād indraś-ca vāyuś-ca

mṛtyur dhāvati pañcamaḥ.

185

SIXTH VALLĪ.

The World Tree.

1. With root above and branches down

Is this eternal pipal tree.

That is the Pure; that is Brahman,

That indeed is called the Immortal;

On that do all the worlds depend;

Beyond it none soever goes.

This truly is that.

A picture is here drawn of an aśvattha or pipal tree (Ficus religiosa) with its root upward, presumably out of sight, and its branches hanging down1. The question arises, what is the point of comparison? Is the whole tree compared to Brahman? This seems the most natural interpretation if we take this verse alone into account. Taken however in conjunction with the next verse which says that the whole world springs from Brahman, we judge, with Śaṅkara, that the unseen root represents Brahman.

Śaṅkara says that the tree represents the world of experience (saṃsāra), and the object of this vallī is to ascertain the nature of Brahman, the root or cause, by examining the nature of the effect, i.e. the tree of the world. If so one would expect the root to be of the same essential nature as the tree. Yet in describing the tree he says, The tree of saṃsāra, always shaking to the wind of desire, like the aśvattha tree, has as its branches all the worlds (heaven, the world of the fathers, the world of men, etc.)—with nests thereon built by the birds (i.e. all living beings), reverberating with the singing, laughing and crying produced by mirth and grief,… changes in its nature every moment, like jugglery, like a mirage, like cloud-cities

1 Some confusing the pipal with the banyan have supposed that “branches down” refers to the aerial rootlets of the banyan which drop down from its branches. Hill also commenting on this passage as partially quoted in Gītā xv. (p. 236) is very anxious to turn the tree right side up. This seems only to detract from a striking simile.

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THE KATHA UPANIṢAD

2, 3

in the sky, and ultimately vanishes, cut down by the sword of

the realisation of the Paramātman.

But if the tree is so unreal, what of its root ?

That root is

said to be the Highest Brahman yet in the same breath the

tree is said to be produced from the seed of Ignorance (avidyā).

That is the fitting source for such a tree. The reality of the

world is very explicitly taught in the next verse.

The Great Fear.

2. The whole world, whatever here exists,

In Life originates and moves :

A great fear ! An upraised thunder-bolt !—

Those who know that become immortal.

3. Through fear of Him the Fire burns :

Through fear (of Him) the Sun gives heat;

Through fear, Indra and Vāyu both,

With Death as fifth, speed on their way.

2, 3. Here Brahman is described as the mysterium tremen-

dum, the source and the moving energy of the universe. He is

called Prāṇa—Life-force (élan vital) and the universe is said to

originate (literally, “be emitted”—niḥsṛtam) from Him and

to continue to move (vibrate or tremble—ejati) in Him.

Evolution is no mechanical process,—the world trembles with

awe as it moves to obey that Living One on whom it depends.

Verse 3 is very similar to Tait. ii. 8. 1

Bhīṣā asmād vātaḥ pavate, bhīṣā udeti sūryaḥ.

“Through fear of Him the Wind doth blow,

Through fear of Him the Sun doth rise,

Through fear of Him, Fire and the Moon,

With Death as fifth speed on their way.”

Note on page 187.

4. aśakat, 2 aor. of śak, to be able, have power. So, “If a man has

been able to know”. Tattvabhusan says, aśakat=na śakat (śaknuyāt)

and translates, “If anyone fails to know it”. So too Sarvananda

aśakat=become unable”. But this is a grammatical tour de force.

visras, V.=falling, decay, dissolution (fr. śraṃs to fall). viśrasaḥ (abl.)

prāk=C. Sk. viśramaṇāt pūrvam.

4, 5

SIXTH VALLĪ

187

हष्ट चेदगकदर्थो प्राकृतरोऽस्य विह्वसः ।

तत्सर्गेषु लोकेषु घ्ररोरत्नाय कल्पते ॥ 8 ॥

यथादर्शे तथात्मनि यथा सपने तथा पितृलोके ।

यथाप्सु परो ददृशे तथा गन्धर्वलोके ।

छायातपयोरिव ब्रह्मलोके ॥ ५॥

Iha ced aśakad boddhum

prāk śarīrasya visrasah,

Tatah sargeṣu lokeṣu

śarīratvāya kalpate.

Yathā (ā)darśe tathā (ā)tmani,

yathā svapne tathā pitṛloke,

Yathā 'psu pari_iva dadrśe

tathā gandharva-loke,

Chāyā-tapayor-iva brahma-loke.

4.c. One Ms. sarveṣu kāleṣu (Weber, I.S., 196);

Böhtlingk, svargeṣu lokeṣu;

Geldner, sarveṣu lokeṣu.

Degrees in the vision of Brahman.

4. If here a man has come to know (Him),

Ere the falling of the body,

Then in the created worlds,*

He partakes embodiment.

5. As in a mirror, so (it is seen) in the soul;

As in a dream, so in the Fathers’ world;

Just as if seen in the waters,

So in the Gandharva world;

As in shadow and light (it is seen) in the Brahma-world.

• Or, Then within the heavenly worlds.

4. śarīratvāya kalpate may mean “he is fit for embodiment”, but klp with the dative commonly means “to partake of”.

For sargeṣu we may amend to svargeṣu,—“in the heavenly worlds”,—a much more suitable meaning. There is, however, no MSS. support and one wonders why such an obvious reading should have been changed

188 THE KAȚHA UPANIȘAD 4, 5

to one more difficult. The same remark applies to Geldner's emendation. He reads sarveṣu and emphasises the possible idea of fitness contained in kalpate, rendering,

Then indeed in every world,

He is fit to bear a body.

If we keep the reading sargeṣu, we may understand it as meaning "other" (and higher) created worlds, e.g. those enumerated in the next verse. Either of these interpretations however only mitigates the difficulty that this verse contradicts the theory that knowledge of Brahman produces release from reincarnation immediately after death.

Śaṅkara attempts to avoid the difficulty by treating the verse as containing an ellipsis and renders as follows: "If here, in this life, a man is able to know the awe-inspiring Brahman before the falling of the body, he is freed from the bond of saṃsāra: if he is not able to know, then, for lack of knowledge, he takes embodiment in earth and other created worlds". This, however, quite changes the meaning, and it would be better frankly to emend the text and supply a negative. Max Müller says, "I doubt whether it is possible to supply so much (as Śaṅkara), and should prefer to read, iha cen nāśakad, though I find it difficult to explain why so simple a text should have been misunderstood and corrupted". Radhakrishnan (U.P. 327) also reads a negative—"Unless a man can know Him". This certainly seems the simplest way to deal with the text.

Another way to deal with the text is to understand it (as Deussen does) as teaching krama-mukti (salvation by stages). If a man can know Brahman (e.g. by scripture and works) even though he has not attained to that intuitive vision of Him in his own soul which is attained through adhyātma-yoga, he enters on the devayāna, or path of the gods, from which there is no return to earth and which leads gradually to the Brahma-world. The difficulty of this interpretation is that it would require us to take the Pitr-loka and the Gandharva-loka of the next verse as stages on the path. But the Pitr-loka or world of the Fathers is usually represented as the terminus of the other path—the pitryāṇa, by which, after a period in the world of the Fathers (usually pictured as the moon) souls return to re-incarnation on earth. This difficulty may perhaps be surmounted by regarding our text as following Kauṣītaki 1. 2, which represents all souls as first going to the moon (or pitr-loka), some returning thence to earth but others going thence by the devayāna through the worlds of Agni, Vāyu, Varuṇa, Indra and Prajāpati to the Brahma-world.

The Gandharvas ("angels") are spirits which, in the Ṛg Veda, are said to dwell in the fathomless spaces of air (Ṛg VIII. 65. 5), but they are also associated with the sun and in Atharva Veda IV. 34. 3 the blest are said to live with them in heaven. In Bṛ. IV. 3. 33, we are told that the bliss of the world of the Fathers is a hundred times the highest bliss of men; the bliss of the Gandharva-world is a hundred

4-8

SIXTH VALLĪ

189

fold that of the Fathers' world ; the bliss of the gods by works a hundred-

fold that of the Gandharva-world; the bliss of the gods by birth is a

hundred-fold that of the gods by works of merit. Again the bliss

of the Prajāpati-world is a hundred-fold that of the gods by birth, and the

bliss of the Brahma-world and of him who is learned in the Vedas,

without crookedness and free from desire, is a hundred-fold the bliss

of the Prajāpati-world. Here we have a series of stages which may

be stages on the devayāna corresponding in some degree with that in Kauṣ

I. 3, and our text may give a similar but abbreviated series. Further our

text is almost certainly connected with Br. IV. 4, 4,—“As a goldsmith

taking a piece of gold, reduces it to other and more beautiful forms,

just so this soul, striking down the body and dispelling its ignorance,

makes for itself other and more beautiful forms, like those of the Fathers,

or the Gandharvas, or the gods, or Prajāpati or Brahmā”.

But though it is possible to regard verse 4 as referring to krama-mukti,

it is clear from verse 5 that this method of salvation is not taught in

the sense of recommended. Almost in the spirit of an evangelical

preacher, warning those who would put off the business of salvation

to some purgatorial world hereafter, our text says in effect, “Now is

the day of salvation”. For, as Śaṅkara says, Here, in this world, the

vision of the Ātman may be as clearly visible as one's own face re-

flected in a mirror, but not in other worlds except the Brahma-world.

Just as in a mirror one sees oneself very clearly reflected, so here, in

the soul, i.e. in one's own purified intelligence, a clear vision of the Self

may be obtained. As in a dream perception is confused, so indistinct

is the vision of the Self in the world of the Fathers (because one is

engrossed in the enjoyment of the fruit of one's deeds). Just as in

water one sees as if an image of oneself with the parts not clearly defined,

so is Self-vision in the Gandharva-world. It is only in the Brahma-world

that a vision may be attained clearer than that possible on earth, and that

world is hard to reach. The meaning is, therefore, that one should seek to

attain the vision of the Self here and now.

इन्द्रियाणि एषग्भावमुदयास्मययो च यत्‌।

पृथगुत्पद्ममानानां मत्ता घोरो न प्रोच्यते॥६॥

इन्द्रियेभ्यः परं मनो मनसः सच्चसुत्तमम्‌।

सत्त्वाद्धि महानात्मा महतोऽव्यक्तमुत्तमम्‌॥७॥

अव्यक्तात्तु परः पुरुषो व्यापकोऽलिलिङ्ग एव च।

यं ज्ञात्वा मुच्यते जन्तुरजस्तत्त्वं च गच्छति॥८॥

190

THE KATHA UPANISAD

6-8

Indriyāṇāṃ prthag-bhāvam,

udayāstamayau ca yat,

Prthag-utpadyamānānāṃ,

matvā dhīro na śocati.

Indriyebhyaḥ param mano,

manasaḥ sattvam uttamam;

Sattvād adhi mahān ātmā,

mahato 'vyaktam uttamam.

Avyaktāt-tu paraḥ puruṣo,

vyāpako 'linga eva ca,

Yaṃ jñātvā mucyate jantur,

amṛtatvaṃ ca gacchati.

The order of progression to the inmost Self,—

to the highest Person.

The separate nature of the senses,

And that their rising and setting

Is of things produced separately (from the self),

The wise man notes and does not grieve.

Beyond the senses is the mind,

Higher than mind is its essence (sattva, i.e. reason)

Above that essence is the great self (mahān ātmā)

Higher than the Great—the Unexpressed (avyakta)

Beyond the Unexpressed is the Person, (puruṣa)

All-pervading and bodiless, (alinga)

By knowing whom a man is freed,

And goes to immortality.

How then is the vision of Brahman to be realised in

the mirror of the soul ?

The first thing is to recognise that the

senses and their objects are quite distinct from the self. Their

fluctuation does not trouble the wise and steadfast man.

Verses 7–9 are practically a repetition in slightly modified

form of iii. 10–12, and our verse stands to them in the same

relation as the Parable of the Chariot stands to iii. 10–12.

Rising and setting : i.e. activity and its cessation in the waking

6-8

SIXTH VALLĪ

191

and sleeping states. Things separately produced : i.e. the senses

are regarded as produced from the subtle elements and not

from the self, of which they form the instruments.

This verse lends itself naturally to a Sāmkhya interpreta-

tion :-the senses belonging to the sphere of prakrti, the first

essential to the attainment of salvation, which consists in

kaivalya is the recognition of their total separateness from the

purusa. We have already discussed, however, whether a dis-

tinctively Sāmkhya interpretation of iii. 10, 11, is permissible

and decided in the negative. The arguments apply here also.

7, 8. Comparing the series here given with that in iii. 10, 11,

we note (1) the omission of the sense-objects, (2) sattva corres-

ponds to buddhi, i.e. reason or intelligence. Sattva is either

used here untechnically in its primary sense of essence or

reality, reason constituting the essence of mind; or semi-

technically, the buddhi being called sattva because in it the guna

or quality of “goodness ” predominates. But with this very

doubtful exception there is no trace of the Sāmkhya doctrine of

the gunas (sattva, rajas and tamas) before the much later Maitrī

Upanisad.

The Alinga Puruṣa :

The highest being is here called the alinga puruṣa. The word

‘linga’ has two main meanings :

(1) A mark or sign, particularly a characteristic or distinctive mark.

Later special applications of this meaning are-

(a) to distinctive sex marks,—so the word is applied to the outward

male generative organ, the phallus ;

(b) as a logical term linga means an invariable sign which is a basis

of inference.

(2) The subtle body (sūkṣma śarīra),—the transmigrating entity consist-

ing of buddhi, ahaṃkāra, manas, indriyāṇi, and subtle elements. (This

is the sense of the term in the Sāmkhya philosophy but it is used in the

other systems also.) Derivatively—

(a) it sometimes seems to be used in the general sense of ‘body’ ;

(b) it may be applied to anything ‘perishable’.

Alinga may have a corresponding variety of meaning1 but

there are two main meanings, (1) without distinctive mark,

(2) without subtle body or psychic apparatus.

In seeking to determine the meaning here we note that this

192

THE KAṬHA UPANIṢAD

8

seems to be the first occurrence of the term. Rather later

occurrences are Muṇḍ. iii. 2. 4 and Maitri vi. 31 ; vi. 35 ; vii. 2,

in all of which the first meaning is most suitable. Liṅga occurs

in the sense of ‘mark’ or ‘characteristic’ in Maitri ii. 5 ; v. 2 ;

vi. 30, 31 ; Gītā xiii. 21, and in the sense of ‘subtle body’, Śvet.

vi. 9 (probably) ; Maitri vi. 10. 19. There is however a very

important earlier usage in the famous transmigration verse,

Br. iv. 4. 6, and as the Kaṭha refers repeatedly to this section

of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka it probably may be taken as determina-

tive of the meaning here.

Tad-eva saktah sahakarmaṇā_eti,

Liṅgaṃ mano yatra niṣaktam asya.

“Where a man’s mind and liṅga (subtle body, i.e. whole

psychic disposition are fixed, there he goes, together with his

work, being attached to that alone.” Here ‘liṅgam’ seems

clearly to refer to the transmigrating entity. Deussen, com-

menting on this verse (P.U. 282), says, “Here we meet, apparently

already a technical term, the word liṅgan, by which the

adherents of the Sāṃkhya were accustomed later to denote the

subtle body.” It is perhaps to be taken in the same meaning in

Kaṭh. vi. 8, and Śvet. vi. 9, where moreover the ātman is des-

cribed as “Lord of the lord of the senses”, i.e. lord of the subtle

body. Keith (S.S. 18) partially disagrees, preferring to adopt

the meaning, “bearing a characteristic mark” in Br. iv. 4. 6,

but says that Kaṭha vi. 8 and Śvet. vi. 9 may refer to the

‘subtle body’. In his later R.P.V. (565), however, he says,

“The term liṅga is apparently used technically to denote the

entity which transmigrates as early as the Kaṭha at least.”

We take it then that the meaning is that while the individual

self or person has a psychic organisation (reason, mind, senses)

which of itself may be perishable, deep within it, constituting

its ultimate reality, there is another Person, which needs no

such psychic organs and is not subject to transmigration or

decay. Truly knowing that Highest Person the individual self

shares in His immortality.

If however the other meaning is preferred (i.e. ‘without

mark’) we should note that this passage cannot be taken as

supporting the doctrine of a characterless Absolute, which

could not by any possibility be known. Even Śaṅkara says,

“ He is called alinga, meaning devoid of all empirical attributes ”.3

And the Maitri Upaniṣad which takes alinga in the sense of

‘without marks’, speaks of “ the mark of Him who is without

marks ” and says, “ He is to be apprehended by his own

peculiar marks ” (vi. 31). “ He verily is pure, clean, tranquil,

undecaying, eternal, etc.” (ii. 4).

1 Here are some of the renderings of alinga given by different translators :

Hume: “ Without any mark ”; Sitarama Sastri: “ Devoid of distinctive

marks ”; Mead: “ Far beyond distinction's power ”; Max Müller: “ Entire-

ly imperceptible ”; Tattvabhusạn: “ asarīra ” (“ bodiless ”). Deussen

(S.U. 286) says that it may mean either (1) “ without mark ” (ohne

Merkmal), (2) “ imperishable ” (unvergänglich), or (3) “ devoid of a

subtle body ” (ohne feinen Leib).

2 Śaṅkara's comment is as follows :-

Avyaktāt tu parah puruṣo vyāpako, vyāpakasyāpy ūkāsādeḥ sarvasyā

kāraṇatvāt. Aliṅgaḥ-lingyate gamyate yena tal-lingaṃ-buddhyādi, tad-

avidyāmānam asya jiti so'yam alinga eva. Sarva-saṃsāra-dharma-varjita

ity etat. Yaṃ jñātvā jācāryataḥ śāstrataśca mucyate jantur avidyādi-

hrdaya-granthibhir jīvanneva, patite 'pi sarīre 'mṛtatvaṃ ca gacchati.

“ Beyond the Avyakta is the Puruṣa called ‘ all-pervading ’ because it is

the cause of all things like the ether which are all-pervading. Re. alinga

— that by which anything is reached or known is linga,— such as the

buddhi, etc. and just because of its absence in His case He is called

alinga. The meaning is, He is devoid of all empirical attributes. Know-

ing Him through teacher and scripture, even while living a man is freed

from the knots of the heart, beginning with Ignorance, and when the

body falls he goes to immortality.”

3 The Śiva-liṅga : Though unnecessary for the interpretation of this

passage it is interesting to note that while we have here a statement that

the Highest Person is alinga, and while the Svetāśvatara some hundred

years or so later identifies that Highest Person with Maheśvara-Śiva and

says, naiva-ca tasya lingam, “ He has no liṅga at all ”, India is now full

of stone liṅgas or phallic emblems of Śiva. It is true that as we

have seen Svet. vi. 9, uses liṅga in a different sense, but it could hardly

have made the statement if the author were familiar with the stone

phallus as an emblem of Śiva. Bhandarkar, V.S. 114, says that he could

find no trace in literature of the Śiva-liṅga as an object of worship before

the late Anuśāsana-parvan of the Mahābhārata (? c. 300 A.D.). He consi-

ders that it was borrowed by the Āryas from the aborigines of the

sub-Himalayan forest region (Vrātyas, Niṣādas, etc.).

194 THE KAȚHA UPANIṢAD 9

न संदृशे तिष्ठतित रुपमस्य न चक्षुषा पश्यति कश्चनैनम् ।

हृदा मनीषा मनसाभिक्लुप्तो य एतद्विदुर अमृतास्ते भवन्ति ॥ ५ ॥

9. Na samdr̥śe tiṣṭhati rūpam asya,

na cakṣuṣā paśyati kaścana enam :

Hrdā manīṣā manasā 'bhiklpṭo,

ye etad vidur amr̥tās te bhavanti.

Inner Vision.

9. Not in the field of vision stands His form,

By outward eye no one soever sees Him :

By heart, by thought, by the mind apprehended :

Those who know Him thereby become immortal.

9. Cf. Taittirīya Āranyaka, x. 1. 3, and also, (probably quoted from

the Kaṭha), Śvet. iii. 13 ; iv. 17 ; Mahān. i. 11.

9. This verse is one of the most striking in the Upaniṣad.

Negatively, the first half insists on the utter impossibility

of forming a visual image of the Supreme Person ; positively,

the second half insists with equal emphasis that there is a way

by which the Supreme Person may be apprehended or known.

“By heart, by thought, by the mind apprehended.”

The Heart (hrd) is in Vedic usage the seat of the emotions

and mental activities. No antithesis is therefore intended

between heart and mind (in its wider sense). The reference is

not to a merely emotional religious experience but to an

apprehension or intuition of the supreme reality which involves

the whole self through the yoga, i.e. yoking or concentrated

direction of all its powers. The apprehension by the heart

referred to here, then, is something which goes beyond the

mere processes of the understanding. “Not by learning or

power of intellect (medhā) is this Self to be obtained. Only by

the man whom He chooses is He obtainable. To him the Self

reveals His person.” But though mere intellect can never

attain Him, nevertheless intelligence or reason is not supersed-

ed. “By thought, by mind He is apprehended.”

9

SIXTH VALLĪ

195

Maniṣā is a Vedic word meaning “reflective thought”.

Śaṅkara interprets as vikalpa-varjita-buddhi,—“Intelligence freed from false notions, ruling as controller of the purposive mind”.

(Note that in V.Sk. the inst. of maniṣā has the same form as the nom.

In C.Sk. it would be maniṣayā.)

Manas (see p. 124) in V.Sk. does not mean merely the organ of sense-perception as in later Sāṃkhya and Vedānta usage, or as in the parable of the chariot and the scale of the faculties, iii. 10 ff. and vi. 7, but is often used in a wider sense.

It is in this wider sense it is used here and is evidently intended to be synonymous with maniṣā.

Śaṅkara interprets as manana-rūpeṇa samyagdarśana—“ true insight in the form of meditation”.

Abhikḷpta (apprehended) : A common V. use of the root kḷp is in the sense ‘ to share or partake of’ (e.g. yajño deveṣu kalpateām, “Let the sacrifice be partaken by the gods”).

Śaṅkara explains as abhisamarthita, abhiprakāśita, i.e. ‘realised’ or ‘revealed’.

Śaṅkara does not attempt to explain away the force of this verse.

Instead he says, “ The Ātman can be known, should be added to complete the sentence ” (i.e. “ Being realised by heart, thought and mind the ātman can be known ”).

Rāmānuja has a very illuminating reference to our text in its relation to others of similar import in Śrībhāṣya i. 4 (Sk. text, 159).

“I maintain that by such scripture texts as the following,—‘He should be heard (i.e. through scripture), reflected on, steadily meditated upon’ (Br. ii. 4. 5);

‘He who knows Brahman obtains the highest’ (Tait. ii. 1. 1);

‘Not by the eye is He apprehended nor yet by speech’ (Mun. iii. 1. 8) but by a pure mind;

“By heart, by thought, by mind, He is apprehended ”:—it is proved that through the injunction of meditation (dhyāna-niyoga) the mind becomes pure, and that the mind so purified gives rise to direct (intuitive) knowledge of Brahman ” (Nirmalam ca mano Brahma_aparokṣa-jñānam janayati).

Compare the greatly simple words of Jesus, “ Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God ”.

196

THE KATHA UPANISAD

10, 11

यदा पञ्चावतिष्ठन्ते ज्ञानानि मनसा सह ।

बुद्धिश्च न विचेष्टति तामाहुः परमां गतिम्॥ १० ॥

तां योगमिति मन्यन्ते स्थिरामिन्द्रियधारणाम् ।

यप्रेम तत्र न भवति योगो हि प्रभवाप्ययौ ॥ ११ ॥

Yadā pañca_avatiṣṭhante

jñānāni manasā saha,

Buddhiś-ca na viceṣṭati1

Tām āhuḥ paramāṁ gatim.

That is, they say, the highest way.

Tām yogam iti manyante,

sthirām indriya-dhāraṇām;

Apramattas tadā bhavati,

yogo hi prabhavāpyayau.

The Way of Yoga further expounded.

When the five means of knowledge rest,

Together with the knowing mind,

And intellect no longer strives,—

That is, they say, the highest way.

This they consider as Yoga,

The firm control of the senses :

Then one becomes concentrated,

For Yoga is acquired and lost.2

1

C.

viceṣṭate.

2

Or,

Yoga

is

creation

and

passing

away,

or,

Yoga

is

beginning

and

end.

Yoga:

In

ii.

12,

in

the

phrase

adhyātma-yoga,

we

have

the

first

usage

of

the

word

“

yoga

”

in

the

Upaniṣads

in

a

philosophical

or

religious

sense.

The

verse

emphasised

as

strongly

as

possible

the

utter

mystery

and

inaccessibility

of

the

supreme

being

yet

stated

that

He

might

be

perceived

through

adhyātma-

yoga.

This

theme

is

taken

up

and

expounded

in

the

Parable

of

the

Chariot

and

throughout

the

third

valli.

The

word

yoga

is

not

used,

but

the

nature

of

yoga

is

expressed

when

it

is

said

10, 11

SIXTH VALLĪ

197

that the senses and all the powers of one's nature must be

yoked (yukta) so that there may be complete restraint or control

of the lower by the higher,—the object being the direction and

concentration of our whole being upon the goal,—the realisa-

tion of that Highest Person who is also our inmost self. Vallis

iv and v emphasise this identity in various ways and point out

as a prerequisite to Self-realisation what the later Yoga calls

pratyāhāra—the turning aside of the senses, and mind from

outward objects with a view to inner concentration. This is the

state referred to in verse 10.

In verse 11, Yoga is defined as indriya-dhāranā,—the holding

firm of the senses (including the mind). The term is probably

here used non-technically, and means very much the same as

the yoking and restraint (yama, niyama) of the senses in valli

iii. In the developed Yoga however, as set forth in the Yoga-

sūtras of Patañjali (c. iv century A.D.) the eight parts or aṅgas

of yoga are said to be: yama, niyama, āsana, prānāyāma,

pratyāhāra, dhāranā, dhyāna, samādhi. Here yama has be-

come specialised to mean ‘abstinence’ from injury, falsehood,

theft, incontinence, and greed, and niyama means such positive

religious duties as cleanliness of body and mind, contentment,

austerity, study and devotion to God.1 Āsana of course refers

to bodily postures and prānāyāma to the control of breathing,

subjects to which the later Yoga devoted disproportionate

attention. These are aids to pratyāhāra and so to dhāranā,

with which yoga in its higher sense begins. This is the con-

centration of the mind in fixed attention upon some symbol or

object. In its higher stage it passes into dhyāna,—meditation

or contemplation, when the object thought of completely oc-

cupies the mind, and this again into samādhi when one is so

absorbed in the object that one loses sight of oneself.

Eight centuries intervene between the first exposition of Yoga

in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad and its full formulation in the Yoga-

sūtras, so that one obviously ought not to be particularly

guided in one's interpretation of the former by the latter. It is

fairly certain, however, that the aṣṭāṅga-yoga is much earlier

than its formulation in the Sūtras, and in any case it is of

interest to note its relation to yoga as set forth in our text.

1 Sūtra ii. 29 (Woods, 177 ff.).

Apramatta : Resuming our exegesis : As a result of the yoga which consists in dhāranā,—steady control, one is said to become apramatta (concentrated). This too is a technical Yoga term. In Yoga-sūtra i. 30, pramāda, literally “intoxication”, “excitement”, but generally used in the sense of “carelessness” is mentioned as one of the distractions that stand in the way of yoga. Apramatta occurs Ch. i. 3. 12 and ii. 22. 2 in the sense “careful”, “intent”. In Mund. ii. 2. 4, it is used of undistracted or concentrated attention to one’s aim. “The pranava (Om) is the bow, the arrow is the soul, Brahman is called the mark. By the ‘undistracted’ man it should be pierced: like an arrow he should become one with it.” Svet. ii. 8, mano dhārayeta apramattah, is obviously a development of our passage: “Like a chariot yoked with vicious horses a wise man should control the mind, being ‘undistracted’.” Apramatta then means as Sankara says, negatively, free from carelessness and distraction, and positively, constant endeavour toward complete concentration (apramattah—pramāda-varjitah, samādhānaṃ prati nityam prayatnavān).

It is of interest to note the central importance of apramāda (Pāli, appamādo) in Buddhist ethics. All the virtues are said to have their root in it.1 (Fausböll translates it by ‘vigilantia’; Max Müller, ‘earnestness’; Saunders, ‘zeal’; I suggest ‘keenness’.) The whole of the second chapter of the Dhammapada (called by Barua the Apramāda-vaga2), is concerned with this root virtue. It begins, in the Pāli version,

Appamādo amata-padaṃ, pamādo maccuno padaṃ;

Apamattā na mīyanti, ye pamattā yathā matā.

“Keenness is the way of immortality, slackness the way of death;

The keen never die, the slack are as if dead already.”

The Dhammapada seems to have been accepted at the Council of Asoka in 240 B.C. as a collection of the sayings of Gautama Buddha, and certainly this chapter breathes the spirit of the Buddha and also of his kingly disciple, with his continual exhortation, “Let everyone exert themselves, both small and great.”3

It is further of interest to note that apramāda is one of the

11

SIXTH VALLĪ

199

three virtues which, according to the short summary of the

ethical requirements of the early Bhāgavata faith, given in the

second part of the Besnagar pillar inscription (c. 180 B.C.),

“lead to heaven”.

Nayamti svaga dama cāga (i.e. tyāga) apramāda.4

“Self-control, self-denial, and keen concentration lead to

heaven.” Though the Kaṭha Upaniṣad is not specifically a

Bhāgavata or Vaiṣṇava work it is, we hold, on the general line

of development of thought which connects Chāndogya iii. 17

with the Besnagar inscription and the Gītā.

Further, on this line of development it is clear that Buddhism

is not, as once supposed, an intrusion. The Buddhist ethics

and Buddha’s own living example help to provide the founda-

tion for the ethical yoga here set forth. We may also surmise

that the second adhyāya of the Kaṭha may be Asokan in date,

though there is no real proof of this.

Yogo hi prabhava apyayau : The fourth line gives a reason

for the concentration of attention,—literally “ Yoga is an arising

and passing away ”, the meaning of which is ambiguous.

(1) Śaṅkara says, Yogo hi yasmāt prabhava apyayau—upajana-

apāyadharmakah—iti arthah. “ Because yoga has the attributes

of being acquired and being lost. Hence the meaning is that to

avoid the risk of losing it vigilance is necessary.” Hence,

following Śaṅkara, Max Müller translates, “ For Yoga comes

and goes ”, and Sadananda and Sitarama Sastri, “ For yoga can

be acquired and lost ”. The difficulty some have found is that

the essential characteristic of yoga is defined at the beginning

of the Yoga-sūtra as “ the restriction of the fluctuations of

the mind ” (Yogas citta-vṛtti-nirodhah). How can this be if

yoga itself fluctuates ?

1 Ye keci kusala dhamma sabbe te appamāda-mūlaki. Note on Dham-

mapada, S.B.E., X., p. 9.

2 Barua and Mitra, Prākrit Dhammapada, 119 ff.

3 Read the whole chapter, Max Müller’s Dhammapada, S.B.E., X., 9–11,

or Wagiswara and Saunders, The Buddha’s Way of Virtue, 24, 25.

4 Raychaudhuri, Early History of the Vaiṣṇava Sect, 59. J.R.A.S. 1909,

pp. 1051–6, 1087–94.

200 THE KATHA UPANIṢAD 11

Even if with Patañjali we regard Yoga simply as mental concentration the difficulty is more dialectical than real. The mind of the Yogin is liable to fluctuation and therefore his degree of attainment of yoga. As the Yoga-bhāṣya (i. 14) says, “Practice when it has been cultivated for a long time and carried out with self-castigation and continence, with knowledge and with faith,—in a word, with earnest attention,—becomes confirmed”,—not otherwise. Ignorance, egoism, desire, aversion and attachment are the five obstacles at the beginning of the path, but not at the beginning only : in various forms they recur,—for every stage of the path there is its own obstacle, and the greater the restraint the greater may be the recoil. Self-complacence, leading to heedlessness, is the most deadly spiritual foe. So in Yoga-bhāṣya ii. 34, the devotee in whose mind resentment at injury may arise is bidden to reflect, “Baked in the terrific fire of transmigration I have taken refuge in the virtue of yoga through charity and love to all beings. So if I revert to questionable paths after giving them up, I am a miserable cur, reverting as a dog to its vomit.”

But the Yoga of the Kaṭha Upaniṣad differs from Patañjali's Yoga and is not definable as citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ. There are of course points of agreement, and Patañjali and his successors develop one side of the Kaṭha teaching in a way that is worthy of the attention of all aspirants after spiritual discipline. But the Yoga-sūtra and bhāṣya are painfully lacking in religious motive. True, devotion to God is mentioned along with asceticism and study as a means of attainment, but God has very little real importance in the system. The Yoga of the Kaṭha, on the other hand, is distinctively religious. It includes mental concentration and the firm control of sense and appetite, but recognises that this can only be accomplished by yoking the soul in communion with the Supreme Self. Now here in this life at least, remain on one level. Hence the higher we rise the greater the need for keen and vigilant attention. “Watch and pray” said, Jesus, “that ye enter not into temptation,” for the tighter we hold the reins of the senses, the greater the danger of reaction unless we vigilantly maintain that communion through which alone our strength comes.

11

SIXTH VALLĪ

201

(2) Another type of interpretation of the phrase Yogo hi prabhava apyayau is indicated by Hume's rendering, “Yoga is the origin and end”, and Deussen's, “Yoga is creation and passing away”.1 These we reject as involving much later ideas which are foreign to the Katha.

(a) Commenting on his rendering, “Yoga is the origin and the end” Hume says, “Perhaps of ‘the world’ of beings and experiences,— here too, as in Māṇḍ 6, where the phrase occurs. That is: the ‘world’ becomes created for the person when he emerges from the Yoga state, and passes away when he enters into it”. The Māṇḍūkya says, “This self is Brahman, This self has four fourths, i.e. the waking state, the dream- ing state, the state of deep sleep and ‘the fourth ’.” Concerning the self in the third state (susupta-sthāna) it is said, “This is Lord of all, this is the all-knowing, this is the inner-controller, this is the source of all, for it is the origin and end of all beings”. (Eṣa yonīḥ sarvasya, prabhava- pyayau hi bhūtānām.) The self in the fourth state is described as un- thinkable, ungraspable, completely one without a second. For the self in the fourth state then, in that complete samādhi in which yoga culminates, there is no world. But when the self passes back into the third state then the world is created in consciousness.

This doctrine of absolute idealism, however, is not the doctrine of the Katha Upaniṣad but is a later development.

(b) Deussen gives a similar rendering: “Yoga is creation and pass- ing away”, and comments, The world sinks down in Yoga and again is created afresh”. He refers however not to the Māṇḍūkya passage but to Yoga-sūtra i. 35, which reads, “He (the Yogin) gains stability when a sense-activity arises connected with an object, bringing the central organ (citta) into a relation of stability ”, i.e. an object is needed on which to focus attention. Then, says the Yoga-bhāṣya, the Yogin will without hindrance acquire faith and energy and mindfulness and concen- tration (samādhi). But though a lower samādhi may be thus acquired, in the higher samādhi all consciousness of objects is transcended.

All this, however, is Patañjali's Yoga and is a later development.

(c) A third and quite different interpretation of the rendering “Yoga is the origin and the end ”, is possible, i.e. that Yoga in its various stages is both the alpha and omega of religion. A similar idea is expressed about bhakti in the Nārada-bhakti-sūtra, 25, 26. “It is higher than karman, jñāna and yoga: because it is its own result”. Also about ‘faith ’ in Romans i. 17 where it is said of Christ's gospel that, “Therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith.”

This possibly is Whitney's interpretation when he translates “Yoga is beginning and end.” The objection may be raised that apyaya does not mean ‘end’ in the sense of consummation, but if by apyaya we under- stand brahmāpyaya (see Svet. vi. 10) this may certainly be the meaning.

1 Yoga ist Schöpfung und vergang.

202

THE KATHA UPANISAD

12, 13

(3) Geldner says, “For Yoga is an arising of a new inner-

world and a passing away of the outer-world”.1 As an alterna-

tive to (1) this is probably best.

Whether one has in view (1) the fluctuating character, (2c)

the importance, or (3) the difficulty, of Yoga, vigilant keenness

is necessary.

नैव वाचा न मनसा प्राप्तुं शक्यो न चक्षुषा ।

अस्तीति ब्रुवतोऽन्यत्र कथं तदुपलभ्यते ॥ १२ ॥

अस्तीत्येवोपलब्धव्यस्तत्त्वभावेन चोभयोः ।

अस्तीत्येवोपलब्धस्य तत्त्वभावः प्रसादति ॥ १३ ॥

12. Na eva vācā na manasā

prāptum śakyo na cakṣuṣā;

Astī iti bruvato ’nyatra

kathan tad upalabhyate.

13. Astīty-eva upalabdhavyas,

tattva-bhāvena ca ubhayoh;

Astīty-eva upalabdhasya

tattva-bhāvah prasīdati.

Faith essential in Yoga.

12. Not by sight can one obtain Him,

Nor yet by speech or by the mind:

Except by* one who says, ‘He is’,

How can He be experienced ?

13. He should be apprehended as “He is”,

And by His real nature,—in both ways:

When He is apprehended as “He is”,

His real nature is made manifest.

*Or, from (i.e. from a true guru).2

12. Hume’s rendering, “How can He be apprehended other-

wise than by one’s saying ‘He is’?” implies a Spencerian

1 denn Yoga ist Entstehen (einer neuen Innenwelt) und Vergehen (der

Aussenwelt). V. B. 168. 2 See Appendix IV, p. 228.

12

SIXTH VALLĪ

203

agnosticism, i.e. the existence of the Absolute may be known

but otherwise He is unknowable. Deussen’s rendering is similar :

“ ‘He is’—by this word alone, And in no other way is he

comprehended”. He treats the verse as a declaration that the

ātman as knowing subject can never become an object for us,

and is therefore itself unknowable. (P.U. 40:3, 4.)

This is surely to misinterpret the emphasis of the verse by

ignoring the context. The general subject is the apprehension

of the Highest Person through yoga,—it is admitted that He

transcends the ordinary means of apprehension, and it is there-

fore urged that faith in His existence is an indispensable

prerequisite to that immediate experience which comes by the

way of yoga. As the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews says,

“He that cometh to God must believe that He is”. Such

faith is often criticised as an assumption at the start of that

which we set out to discover : yet what adventures of discovery

in science or in life start in any other way than with a convic-

tion of the reality of that which is sought ?

Śaṅkara’s comment may be condensed as follows: True,

Brahman cannot be apprehended by the senses or intellect as

specifically this or that. Nevertheless since He is conceived as

root or source of the universe He certainly exists (jagato

mūlam ity-avagatvād asti eva). The chain of effects being

traced back and back leads to the conviction that real being

must exist (i.e. the ontological postulate is inevitable: we

cannot conceive of the world as produced from nothing). Those

then who, following the general teaching of scripture and

having faith, maintain His existence, are able to apprehend

Him, but in the case of the atheist or nihilist (nāstika-vādin)

who maintains that no ātman, the source of the world, exists,

and that this world-effect, not being inseparably connected

with a cause is absorbed into non-existence,—in the case of

one who thus sees perversely how can Brahman be truly

apprehended ? It is obviously impossible.

Śaṅkara is here arguing against the atheism and nihilism of

the Buddhist doctrine of anātman and exhibits a side of his

teaching too often ignored by his European expositors : Śaṅkara

the mystic and man of faith, as opposed to Śaṅkara the

metaphysical agnostic.

204 THE KAṬHA UPANIṢAD 13

13. The most obvious way of rendering the second line is "And by the real nature of both" (so Hume). So too Max Müller renders, "And by (admitting) the reality of both"; and Deussen, "In so far as he is the essence of both". But what in this case is meant by "both"? Two things have not been referred to, so the meaning is decidedly obscure. Inferring a meaning of "both" from the context Hume suggests that they are "his comprehensibility and incomprehensibility"; Max Müller, "the invisible Brahman and the visible world as coming from Brahman"; Mead, "asti and nāsti, sat and asat, the manifested and unmanifested aspects of Brahman"; most Indian commentators, "ubhayoh=sopādhika-nirupādhikayoh" (the qualified and unqualified Brahman).

Surely the plain antithesis of the text is between the astitva (existence) and the tattva-bhāva (essence, inner being or real nature) of the Supreme Being. These are the "both" referred to, and the whole difficulty disappears if ubhayoh is separated from tattva-bhāvena-ca and taken either (1) as a genitive expressing the agent (M. 202. 3)—"He should be apprehended as existent, and by His essential nature,—i.e. by both"; or (2) ubhayoh may be taken as Śaṅkara suggests as a definitive genitive (nirdhāraṇārthā ṣaṣṭhī),—

"He should be apprehended as existent, And by His real nature: Re. these two— When He is apprehended as existent His real nature is made manifest."

Rational faith in the Divine existence should lead on to spiritual experience in which His nature is immediately revealed to and apprehended by the believer. This is the end or culmination of true yoga (spiritual yoking).

At first sight there seems to be a contradiction between verse 12 and verse 9 with its emphatic declaration that the Highest Person may be apprehended or realised "by the mind". This leads Ranade (U.P. 339, 340) to suggest that in verse 9 we should read a negative right through. "Never has any man been able to visualise God by sight, nor is it possible to realise Him either by the heart, or by the imagination, or by the mind. It is only those who know this sublime truth who become immortal." This is surely almost perversely gratuitous! Manas is in verse 12 used in its narrower meaning of the central organ of ordinary perception, while in verse 9 it is used in a much wider sense (see note on 9).

13

SIXTH VALLĪ

205

This verse brings to a point all that we have previously noted in the teaching of the Upaniṣad re: the knowability of Brahman. To recapitulate: II. 9 says that He is not to be obtained by argumentative reasoning (tarka) yet when taught by a fit guru He may be well known. II. 12 emphasises the difficulty of seeing Him by any ordinary means, yet says that He may be perceived by adhyātma-yoga. II. 20 and 23 set forth the greatness and subtlety of the Supreme Self and teach that He cannot be obtained by force of intellect, nor even by instruction in and knowledge of Scripture, but also affirm that to the man whose will is at rest in Him there comes, by His grace, a vision in which He makes His person manifest. The Third Valli goes on to speak of the discipline of yoga by which a man’s whole being may be unified and concentrated on the realisation of the Highest Person who is our inner and most real Self. This subject is resumed in Valli VI. It begins with the picture of the world tree of which Brahman is the root, and goes on to speak of Brahman as the mysterious life and energy of the universe. This Brahman must be known if we are to escape death and transmigration and attain true, abiding reality, and He may be known, not indeed by the outward ranging senses and striving intellect, but by the thought which has been disciplined and concentrated within upon the Highest who is also the inmost Person, the Inner-Self,—Brahman. Thus, though we may not be able to demonstrate the existence of Brahman (since He is alinga, ‘without empirical marks’), we may have a rational conviction of His existence as root or ground of the world and of our own being (as also from scripture and the communicated experience of spiritual teachers). Religion then begins with the conviction or rational faith in the Divine existence and this opens the way to the higher faith of spiritual experience (adhyātma-yoga), in which the real nature or inner being of God, which transcends description, is revealed or immediately realised.

The Kaṭha Upaniṣad does not describe the stages of this adhyātma or rāja-yoga,1 but the Maitri Upaniṣad and Patañjali

1

Nor does it give any detailed account of the practice of yoga. For this as described in the Svetāśvatara and the Gītā see Appendix III.

206

THE KATHA UPANISAD

13-15

later speak of them as dhāraṇā, dhyāna, and samādhi. Using

these terms to express what we conceive to be the nature of

the adhyātma-yoga of the Kaṭha we might summarize as follows.

In dhāraṇā (concentration) the soul, when it has controlled

the sense-life, concentrates attention on the thought of God.

In dhyāna (contemplation) the soul is at rest in the thought of

God. In samādhi (ecstasy) the thought of God wholly occupies

the consciousness. “The sense of separateness, the conscious-

ness of ‘I’ and ‘my’, disappears. We attain sayujyatā,1 the

consciousness of being completely yoked with God.” “To

him the Self reveals His own person.” “His inner nature is

made manifest.”2

यदा सर्वे प्रमुच्यन्ते कामा येऽस्य हृदि श्रिताः ।

अथ मर्त्योऽमृतो भवत्यत्र ब्रह्म समश्नुते ॥ १३ ॥

यदा सर्वे प्रभिद्यन्ते हृदयस्येह ग्रथ्नयः ।

अथ मर्त्योऽमृतो भवत्येतावदनुशासनम् ॥ १४ ॥

Yadā sarve pramucyante

kāmā ye 'syā hṛdi śritāḥ,

Atha martyo 'mṛto bhavaty

atra brahma samaśnute.

Yadā sarve prabhidyante

hrdayasya iha granthayah.

Atha martyo 'mṛto bhavaty

etāvad anuśāsanam.

15.d. A. etāvad hi anu°

1 “So when this chariot-rider is liberated from those things wherewith

he was filled full and overcome, (i.e. delusion, passion, self-conceit, and

attachment to external objects), then he attains complete union (sāyujya)

with the Ātman.” (Maitri iv. 4.)

2 We should remind ourselves once more of the great difference between

the fully theistic yoga we have been considering and the yoga of Patañjali.

In the latter God (Īśvara) is simply a special puruṣa, untouched by

afflictions or the fruits of karman, who assists the devotee by removing

the obstructions in the lower stages of yoga. Even then meditation on

him is optional. In any case completed (nirbīja) samādhi is objectless,

a trance supposed to lead to dissolution of the citta (including intellect,

self-consciousness and mind) and the attainment by the puruṣa of kaivalya,

the freedom of absolute isolation.

14, 15

SIXTH VALLĪ

207

The Consummation of Yoga.

14. When all desires are given up

That dwell within the human heart,

Then a mortal becomes immortal,

Even here to Brahman he attaineth.

15. When are cut asunder all

The knots that fetter here the heart,

Then a mortal becomes immortal :

Thus far is the instruction.

14, 15. These verses refer to the state of samādhi (ecstatic union) in which yoga culminates, in which all separate desires, all self-will is given up. The knots of the heart, which bind it to a lower life, are kāma (self-seeking desire), avidyā (ignorance) and samśaya (fear and doubt). (See Muṇḍ. ii. 1. 10, ii. 2. 8.) When self is lost sight of in the vision of God all these knots are finally cut.

Na paśyo mrtyum paśyati, na rogam nauta duḥkhatām ;

Sarvam ha paśyaḥ paśyati, sarvam āpnoti sarvaśaḥ.

"The seer does not see death,

Nor sickness nor any distress :

The seer sees only the All,

Obtains the All entirely."

Through such firm recollection (dhruvā smṛtiḥ), Sanatkumāra taught Nārada (Ch. vii. 26. 2) "the knots (of the heart) are unloosed. To such a one, his stains wiped away, is shown the further shore of darkness."

What is the nature of the consummation here described ? Lanman has said that, "The great practical aim of all the teaching (of the Upaniṣads) is, by exterminating in the soul all desires and activity, root and branch, to lead to the realisation of the unity of the soul and the Supreme Soul. This realised it is liberated; and death can only do away with what no longer exists for the emancipated soul, the last false semblance of a difference between itself and the Supreme."1

1 Transactions of the American Philological Association, Vol. XXI, p. xiv.

208 THE KAȚHA UPANIṢAD 14, 15

At first sight our text might seem to justify this statement. But Br. iv. 4. 7, of which it may be a quotation, speaks of the man who is freed from desire not as being entirely impassive but as one “whose desire is satisfied, whose desire is the Self”. And Ch. viii. i. 5. 6, distinguishes desires that fetter from “true desires” (satya-kāmāḥ) that liberate, and speaks of the Supreme Self also as satya-kāmaḥ satya-saṅkalpaḥ (“desiring and purposing truth”).

Lanman’s words are true of course for many Upaniṣad texts, but they are by no means generally true, the theistic element in the Upaniṣads being much stronger than was once supposed. In particular, the Kaṭha Upaniṣad, though quoting (in its second adhyāya) from the Bṛhadāraṇyaka, and possibly affected in parts by the idealistic monism of Yājñavalkya, is on the whole distinctly theistic.

Verse 14, though in its context in Br. accompanied by the comment of Yājñavalkya, “Being very Brahman he goes to Brahman”, does not in itself read like an assertion of metaphysical monism. It is rather a statement, in final answer to the third question of Naciketas, that that fellowship with God which is the consummation of spiritual experience is immortality. “This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God.” “The soul utterly puts off itself (i.e. its self-centred desires) and puts on divine love; and being conformed to that beauty which it has beheld, it utterly passes into that other glory.” (Richard of St. Victor.)

Thus far is the instruction : These words seem to mark the end of the enlarged Upaniṣad (the original Upaniṣad ending at iii. 17). The remaining verses are a still later appendix.

16, 17

SIXTH VALLĪ

209

प्रतं चैका प हृदयस्य नाड्यस्तासां मूर्धानमभिनिःसृतैका ।

तयोर्ध्वमायन्नमृतत्वमेति विष्वङ्गन्याः उत्क्रमणे भवन्ति ॥ १६ ॥

अङ्गुष्ठमात्रः पुरुषोऽन्तरात्मा सदा जनानां हृदये सन्निविष्टः ।

तं स्वाच्छरोरात्प्रवृहेन्मुञ्जादिवेशीकां धैर्येण ।

तं विद्याच्छुक्रममृतं तं विद्याच्छुक्रममृतमिति ॥ १७ ॥

16. Śatam ca_ekā ca hṛdayasya nāḍyas,

tāsāṁ mūrddhānam abhiniḥsṛtā_ekā;

Tayā ūrdhvam āyan amṛtatvam eti,

viśvañg anyā utkramane bhavanti.

17. Anguṣṭha-mātraḥ puruṣo 'ntarātmā,

sadā janānāṁ hṛdaye sanniviṣṭaḥ;

Tam svāt_sarīrāt pravṛhet_

muñjād-iva_iśikāṁ dhairyeṇa,

Tam vidyāt_sukram amṛtam,

tam vidyāt_sukram amṛtam—iti.

16.d. Two Mss.: viśvag anyā.

The parting of soul from body.

A hundred and one are the veins of the heart;

Of these one leads up to the top of the head;

Rising by this one attains immortality;

The others are for going forth in various ways.

A thumb sized personage, the Inner-self,

Dwells ever in the heart of every creature:

Him from one's body one should draw,

Firmly, as from its sheath a reed:

Him know as the pure, the immortal;

Him know as the pure, the immortal.

This verse is taken from Chānd. viii. 6. 6. There it is said that if a man has lived the chaste life of a student of sacred knowledge (brahmacarya) and so 'found the Self', then at time of death his soul, dwelling in the heart, will pass upward by a vein or artery, known later as suṣumnā (Maitri vi. 21.—? the carotid vein) to an aperture in the crown of the skull

210

THE KATHA UPANIṢAD

16, 17

known as the brahmarandhram or vidṛti (the junction of the

sagittal and coronal sutures, the opening in the child's skull

known as the anterior fontanelle), by which at the beginning of

life it first entered. Thence the soul arises by the sun's rays to

the sun, which is a doorway to the Brahma-world to those who

know, but a stopping place for non-knowers.

Śaṅkara, very naturally from his point of view, says that the

verse only applies to those who have not attained the imme-

diate knowledge of Brahman spoken of in the preceding in-

struction,—to those who by knowledge of the lower Brahman

and by worship attain a relative immortality. With regard to

the liberated man of the preceding section who “even here

attains to Brahman”, the Bṛhadāraṇyaka in the prose part

of the section from which Kaṭha vi. 14 may be quoted, says,

“His breaths (prāṇāḥ) do not go forth. Being very Brahman,

he goes to Brahman”. Yājñavalkya pictures the body of the

freed man as it appears to an outward observer, “As the

slough of a snake lies on an ant-hill, dead, cast off, even so lies

this body”. But the man himself “the incorporeal immortal

life”, has not departed anywhere: being spirit, attaining Spirit,

he is free from the form of space.

Chānd. viii. 6. 6 and Bṛ. iv. 4. 6. 7, are written, then, from

very different view-points. The first with its mixture of quaint

physiology and cosmology is naturalistic, the second is the

view-point of idealistic metaphysics. To Śaṅkara these corres-

pond to his vyāvahārika and pāramārthika points of view and

he naturally takes vi. 16 as expressing the first. The editor of

the Kaṭha, however, does not seem to have minded the dis-

crepancy in the points of view of his sources, and pace Śaṅkara

he certainly intends vi. 16, b, c, to refer to the completely

freed man of 14 and 15. With Śaṅkara we take line d. to

mean that the other veins are for leading the unliberated

soul to re-embodiment.

17. This verse is distinctly composite, consisting of half a triṣṭubh

stanza united with an anuṣṭubh. The half verse 17 a, b, is identical with

Śvet. iii. 13, a, b, and there the verse is completed by the words found in

Kaṭha vi. 9, c, d :

By heart, by thought, by the mind apprehended :

Those who know Him thereby become immortal.

SIXTH VALLĪ

मृत्युप्रोक्तां नचिकेतोऽथ लब्ध्वा विद्यामेतां योगविधिं च कृत्स्नम् ।

ब्रह्मप्राप्तो विरजोऽभूद्विमृत्युरन्योऽप्येवं यो विदध्यात्ममेव ॥ १८ ॥

इति षष्ठो वल्ली समाप्ता ॥

सा नो बुद्ध्या शुभया संयुनक्तु । सा नो नाववतु । सा नो वीर्यं करवावहै ।

तेजस्वि नावधौतमस्तु । मा विद्विषावहै ॥

ॐ शान्तिः । शान्तिः । शान्तिः ॥

इति कठोपनिषत्समाप्ता ॥

18. Mrtyu-proktām Naciketo 'tha labdhvā,

vidyām etām yoga-vidhim-ca kṛtṣnam,

Brahma-prāpto virajo 'bhūd vimṛtyur,

anyo 'py evam yo vid adhyātmam eva.

Iti ṣaṣṭhī vallī samāptā.

Om!

Saha nāv avatu;

Saha nau bhunaktu;

Saha vīryaṃ karavāvahai;

Tejasvi nāv adhītam astu;

Mā vidviṣāvahai;

Om! śāntiḥ! śāntiḥ! śāntiḥ!1

Iti Kaṭhopaniṣat samāptā.

1 Some Mss. read: Saha nāv-iti śāntiḥ.

Conclusion.

18. Then Naciketas having gained the knowledge

Declared by Death, and the whole rule of Yoga,

Found Brahman and was freed from evil, freed from death :

So may another who thus knows the Real Self.

Om ! May He protect us both !

May He be pleased with us !

May we act manfully together !

Successful may our study be !

Let us not hate one another !

Om ! Peace ! Peace ! Peace !

18. Whitney notes the use of the forms Naciketa and viraja for Naciketas and virajas as an indication of late and careless origin. Max Müller and Böhtlingk suggest that viraja may be a slip for vijara, “free from old age”. Taking it as virajas, the meaning may be “free from earth’s dust” (see the description of the gods seen by Damayanti, Nala v. 24), or ethically, “free from taint of evil”, “free from passion”. The final prayer, which repeats the opening, though not a part of the Upaniṣad is found in most manuscripts.

Here ends The Kaṭha Upaniṣad.

213

APPENDICES

I. The Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa account of the Naciketas Story, is really part of the Introduction.

II. The Parable of the Chariot, is partly introductory and in part gives the later development of the parable.

III. The Practice of Yoga in the Gītā and Śvetāśvatara illustrates the nature of yoga from the literature nearest in time and spirit to the Katha and leads on to a concluding Epilogue.

IV and V are merely supplementary notes which have been placed here rather than in the body of the book so as not to distract the general reader.

The book as it stands is obviously incomplete. It was my intention to add two concluding chapters : One on The Doctrine of God in the Katha Upaniṣad : the other on the whole theistic movement initiated by the Katha, tracing the ideas of puruṣa, akṣara-avyakta, and mahān ātmā through the other early metrical Upaniṣads, (Muṇḍaka, Śvetāśvatara and Praśna), the Vedānta-sūtras, and the schools of the Mahābhārata.

Here, in essence, we see the assertion of an internal differentiation within the unity of the Divine Being which presents obvious analogies to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity,—the philosophical object in both cases being to provide a basis for the reality of personality both in God and man, and so for real religious experience.

Actually, however, it was from a religious experience of communion, which could not but be taken as real, that the philosophical doctrine in both cases has grown.

We may also see how the concept of the akṣara-avyakta has been developed in most untheistic directions into the independent prakṛti of the Sāṃkhyas and the avidyā or cosmic principle of illusion of Śaṅkara's Vedānta.

Yet again the avyakta, which as divine creative energy is called in Śvet. devātmā-śakti, and also the womb (yoni) from which creation is derived, being personified as female and called śakti and devī is used to provide philosophical justification for that goddess-worship which is perhaps India's most popular religion.

All this however requires much more than two chapters.

This book therefore remains a Preliminary Study in the Hindu Doctrine of God, gathering material which we hope later to develop in more systematic form.

214

APPENDIX I.

The Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa account of the Naciketas story.

उपमन्यु वै वाजश्रवसः सर्ववेदसं ददौ। तस्य ह नचिकेता नाम पुत्र आस। तं हकुमारं सन्तम्। दक्षिण्यासु नोयमानासु श्रद्धाऽऽइवेदेश। स होवाच। तत कसै मां दाक्ष्यसौति। दितौयं हतौयम्। तं ह परौत उवाच। मृत्यवे त्वा ददामौति। तं ह क्षोभितं वागभिवदति। १

गौतमकुमारमिति। स होवाच। परेऽपि मृत्योरन्तान्। मृत्यवे वै लब्धामिति। तं वै प्रवसन्तं गन्तासौति होवाच। तस्य ह स तिष्ठो राजोऽन्वागहि वसतात्। स यदि त्वा पृच्छेत्। कुमार कति रात्रौ-सौति। तिष्ठ इति प्रतिब्रूताव्। किं प्रथमां रात्रिमात्रेति। २ प्रज्ञां त इति। किं दितौयामिति। पशूनुक्त इति। किं हतौया-मिति। साधुक्षत्रां त इति, इति। तं वै प्रवसन्तं जगाम। तस्य ह तिष्ठो राजोऽन्वागृह उवास। तमागत्य पप्रच्छ। कुमार कति रात्रौरवाऽऽशौति। तिष्ठ इति प्रब्रुवाच। २

किं प्रथमां रात्रिमात्रेति। प्रज्ञां त इति। किं दितौयामिति। पशूनुक्त इति। किं हतौयामिति। साधुक्षत्रां त इति। नमस्ते अस्तु भगव इति होवाच। वरं वृणौष्वेति। पितरमेव श्रौषद्यात्रौति। दितौयं वृणौष्वेति। श्रौषदपुत्रोर्मेऽदितिं ब्रोषौति होवाच। तस्मै हैतमपि नाचि-केतमुवाच। ततो वै तस्मैऽपुत्रे नाधौषेते। नाशिषापूर्वे धौयते। योडपिं नाचिकेतं चिनुते। य उ चैनमेव वेद। हतौयं पुनर्मृत्योर्मेऽपजितिं ब्रोषौति होवाच। तस्मै हैतमपिं नाचिकेतमुवाच।

ततो वै सोऽप पुनर्मृत्युमजयत्। ४

योडपिं नाचिकेतं चिनुते। य उ चैनमेव वेद, इति।

TAITTIRĪYA BRĀHMAṄA III. 11. 8.

215

Being desirous (of reward)1 Vājasravasa gave away all his wealth. Now he had a son named Naciketas. When he was still a boy, as the offerings were being led away faith entered into him. He said, “Father, to whom will you give me ?” Twice he asked and thrice. Then, overcome (with annoyance),2 he said, “To Death do I give you”.

As he stood up (to go) a Voice addressed him. It said to young Gautama,3 “He has said, ‘Go to Death’s house. To Death have I given you’. Go therefore while he is away from home. Stay in his house for three nights without eating. If he should ask you, ‘How many nights have you stayed here, boy ?’—say ‘Three’. (When he asks) ‘What did you eat the first night ?’ (answer) ‘Your offspring’; ‘What the second ?’ (answer) ‘Your cattle’; ‘What the third ?’ (answer) ‘Your good works’.”

He went (to Death’s house) when he was away from home. He stayed in his house three nights without eating. When he returned he asked him, “How many nights have you stayed here, boy ?” He answered, “Three.” “What did you eat the first night ?” “Your offspring”. “What the second ?” “Your cattle.” “What the third ?” “Your good works.”

Then he (Yama) said, “I bow to you, Sir. Choose a gift.” “May I return living to my father”, he said. “Choose a second”. “Tell me how my sacrifices and good works (iṣṭā-pūrte) may be imperishable”, he said. So he explained to him this Nāciketa fire. Thereafter his sacrifices and good works did not perish. He who prepares the Nāciketa fire and who moreover thus knows it, his sacrifices and good works do not perish.

He said, “Choose a third gift”. “Tell me the conquest of re-death (punar-mṛtyu)”, said he. Then he explained to him this Nāciketa fire: thus indeed he conquered re-death. He who prepares the Nāciketa fire and who moreover thus knows it, he conquers re-death.

1 Following Śaṅkara. But uṣan here, if an adjective, may mean ‘willing’, “of his own free-will”, or, as Bhaṭṭabhāskara Miśra says, Uśan may be a proper name, “Now Uśan Vājasravasa (i.e. descendant of Vājasravasa) gave away all his wealth”. (See p. 58, 65.)

2 Commentary, kruddha-iva,—“as though angry”.

3 Gautama-kumāram iti—the translation given above is doubtful since iti should mark what is said. The commentator, Bhaṭṭabhāskara

216

APPENDIX II.

The Parable of the Chariot.

The theme of the chariot recurs many times in the history of

Indian religious thought.

In Vedic mythology almost all the gods are represented as

riding in cars, usually drawn by horses. In the case of the

various Sun-gods this imagery is specially prominent and

vivid. Sūrya is represented as riding in a golden chariot

(ratha) drawn by seven bay mares. Savitr’s shining chariot is

drawn by two radiant horses.

So too to-day, two figures of horses precede the car of

Jagannāth at Serampore, and four at Puri.

This imagery is often treated symbolically and we have a

number of chariot parables. That of the Kaṭha is the most

famous and important, but it may be of interest to examine

some of the others.

(1) The Dirghatamas parable. The first chariot parable

is that found in Ṛg Veda I. 164 (see Introduction, page 13ff.).

There the wheeled car with seven horses primarily denotes the

sun, but the sun as symbolising the one universal reality. The

sage then goes on to speak of that which possesses bone (the

body) as sustained by the “boneless”, i.e. by an incorporeal

reality more fundamental than the blood or the life-breath, i.e.

by the ātman, the invisible soul. This ātman, moreover, not

only upholds the body but the whole universe.

(2) The Aitareya Āraṇyaka parable. Ait. Ār. II, i-iii,

is considered by Keith1 to be the earliest Upaniṣad extant.

The general theme is the allegorical significance of the five-

Miśra (c. 1188 A.D.) reads Gautama kim kumāram iti, and comments,

Āha, he Gautama : kim kumāram iti, kim evam bālamṛtyave dadāsi.

Following him we should translate, “As he (Vājasravasa) stood up a

Voice addressed him. It said, ‘Gautama ! What of the boy ?’ ( ‘What

kind of son have you given to Death ? Does this benefit your Gautama

race ?’). He (i.e. the father) said, ‘Go to Death’s house (that I may not

sin). To Death, indeed, have I given you. But go while he is away

from home, etc’.”

Iṣṭāpūrtayor akṣitim ; “The imperishability of sacrifices and good

works”. The commentator reads, kṣitim=sthānam : “The abiding-

place of...good works”.

AITAREYA Ā. CHARIOT-PARABLE

217

fold hymn (uktha), sung in connection with the Mahāvrata rite, as symbolising the Self. 'He who knows himself as the

fivefold hymn from whence all springs is wise. . . . He who knows more and more clearly the Self obtains fuller being. In plants

and trees sap only is seen, in animals consciousness. The Self is more and more clear in man for he is most endowed with

intelligence. He knows to-morrow, he knows the world and what is not the world. By the mortal he desires the immortal,

being thus endowed. As for animals, hunger and thirst comprise their knowledge. But this man is the sea, he is above all

the world,—whatever he reaches he desires to be beyond it.'

The chariot parable is introduced abruptly in II. iii. 8, as follows :

'Here are these verses : 2

'That fivefold body the undying (aksara) enters,

That which the harnessed steeds draw to and fro,

In which is yoked the trueness of the true,

In that are all the gods in one combined.

Which, from the undying, the undying joins,

That which the harnessed steeds draw to and fro,

In which is yoked the trueness of the true,

In that are all the gods in one combined.

In which revealed the poets did rejoice,

In it, in unity, the gods exist ;

Casting aside all evil by this lore,

The wise man rises to the world of heaven.'

1 Keith, The Aitareya Āranyaka (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1909), from which the translation given above is quoted.

2 Tatra te slokāḥ,

Yad akṣaraṃ pañcavidhaṃ sameti,

yujo yuktā abhi yat saṃvahanti,

Satyasya satyam anu yatra yujyate,

tatra devāḥ sarva ekam bhavanti.

Yad akṣarād akṣaram eti yuktam,

yujo yuktā abhi yat saṃvahanti,

Satyasya satyam anu yatra yujyate,

tatra devāḥ sarva ekam bhavanti.

Yasmin nāmā samatṛpyañ chrute 'dhi,

tatra devāḥ sarvayujo bhavanti,

Tena pāpmānaṃ apahatya brahmanā,

Svargaṃ lokam apyeti vidvān.

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APPENDIX II

"There is a chariot of the gods that destroys desire. Its seat is speech,

its two sides the ears, the horses the eyes, the driver the mind. This

life-breath (prāṇa) mounts upon it.

A Ṛṣi says (Rg X. 39. 12), 'Come hither on what is quicker than

the mind', and (Rg VIII. 73. 2), 'On what is quicker than the winking

of an eye'."1

There is much in this passage that is obscure, but yet it would

seem clear that we have here (especially in the verse portion

which Keith considers the older), a foreshadowing of some of

the most distinctive ideas of the Katha.2 The car of the body,

made of the five elements, is drawn by horses, which the prose

identifies with the eyes but the verse probably with all the

indriyāṇi (described also as devāḥ). The soul, called in the

prose prāṇa and in the verse akṣara ("the undying" or

"imperishable") mounts the chariot of the body and so is

united with the senses, controlling them by means of his driver,

the mind (the buddhi of the Katha) so that they act in unison.

In the second verse the soul is called akṣarād akṣara ("undying

from the undying"), and Sāyaṇa comments that the first

"undying" is prāṇa and the second Brahman. It is Brahman

also that is probably described as satyasya satyam ("trueness of

the true", "reality of reality"). Brahman therefore or the

akṣara (avyakta), being the basis of the soul, may truly be said

to be yoked in the chariot, controlling all our life-powers to

harmony. In verse 3 also, where Keith translates brahmaṇā

"by this lore", Sāyaṇa says "by this Brahman".

(3) The Chāgaleya parable. The Chāgaleya Upaniṣad also

speaks of the body as a chariot, sustained by its rider, the soul.

The parable is introduced by a story which seems to be based

on Aitareya Brāhmaṇa ii. 19. Certain Brahmin sages, holding

a sacrificial session on the banks of the Sarasvatī, debarred

Kavasa Ailūṣa from initiation because he was the son of a

maid-servant. He asked by what right they did this. "Be-

cause we are Brahmins, and so it is our right." What makes

1 Anakāma-māro 'tha deva rathas. Tāsya vāg uddhiḥ, śrotre pakṣasī,

cakṣuṣī yuktā, manaḥ sarngrahītā. Tad ayam prāṇo 'dhitiṣṭhati.

Tad uktam ṛṣinā, Ā tena yātam manaso javīyasā. Nimiṣas cij javīyāseti.

2 i.e. Yoga and the akṣara-avyakta. Modi seems to have overlooked

this passage which is of obvious importance for the development of

the Akṣara doctrine.

CHĀGALEYA CHARIOT-PARABLE

219

a Brahmin ? he asked. The birth-rites and initiation (upanayana), they replied. He then took them to the corpse of the celebrated Brahmin priest, Ātreya, which was lying close at hand, and asked, Did he lack birth-rites or upanayana ? Then where are his powers departed ? The Brahmins, being at a loss, asked that Kavasa would teach them. Surely such a low-born one cannot teach the highest persons, he smilingly said, and sent them to the Child-sages (bāliśas) of Kurukṣetra.

The Child-sages showed the Brahmins a chariot, rushing along a road, and then, at the end of the day, the same chariot tumbled down and inert, with its horses unyoked. What is the difference, they asked; What has departed from it ? The driver, of course, said the Brahmins. Quite so, said the Child-sages. "The Soul is the impeller of this (body), the senses (karanāni) the horses, the veins the straps, the bones the reins, blood the lubricant, volition the whip, speech the creaking and the skin the outer top.1 And just as the chariot, abandoned by the driver, could not move or creak, so (this body) abandoned by the intelligent self (prajñātman) neither speaks or even breathes ; it just putrifies : and dogs may run at it, crows alight on it, vultures tear it, and jackals devour it."

No application of the teaching is made, but its obvious meaning is that the ātman is the one source of power and greatness, and caste and caste-privilege belong merely to the perishable body. The Brahmins, we are told, received the teaching and learned humility.

Belvalkar is inclined to date this parable earlier than the Kaṭha (" judged by language alone ").2 Of this we are doubtful. The account of the bāliśas is surely dependent on the bālya teaching of Br̥. iii. 5, and they correspond to the vālakhilyas of Maitri ii. 3.3 But for our purpose the question of priority is not important as the chariot parables of the Kaṭha and the Chāgaleya are obviously independent.

1 Ātmā vā asya pracodayitā, karanāny aśvāḥ, sīrā naddhayo, 'sthinī upagraha, aśya gñānam, karma pratodo, vākyaṃ kvaṇanam, tvac̣a uparaha iti. For the full text and translation see Belvalkar, Four Unpublished Upaniṣadic Texts.

2 H.I.P. 132.

3 There are several other points of connection between Chāgaleya and Maitri, e.g. the description of the Ātman as pracodayitṛ (impeller) and

220

APPENDIX II

(4) Buddhist chariot-parables. There are several interesting Buddhist chariot-parables, all however later than the Katha parable and quite different in their teaching.

(a) The Dhammapada parable. The oldest of these Buddhist chariot-parables is that found in the opening verses of the Kharoṣṭhi Dhammapada,1 which seem to be taken from the Samyutta Nikāya :

"Straight" is the name that road is called,

"Fearless" the quarter it leads to;

The chariot is named "Silent-runner",

With wheels of 'right-effort' well-fitted.

"Conscience" is its leaning-board,

"Heedfulness" its canopy;

"Dharma" I say is its driver,

"Right views" the horses that draw it.

Whoso has such a chariot,

Be it wanderer or householder,

Be it a man or a woman,

By that very same chariot,

Is carried right to Nirvāṇa.

Here the chariot is the Buddhist teaching which, in its silent spiritual progress, takes one straight to fearlessness, straight toward Nirvāna, and the Dharma itself is said to be the charioteer. The metre is the same as that of the Katha parable.

(b) The Milinda-pañha parable. The most famous of the Buddhist chariot-parables is that found in The Questions of King Milinda.2 (c. 1st century B.C.). Milinda (Menander), King of the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom which in India had its centre in Taxila, asks the Buddhist missionary Nāgasena what is his name. "I am called Nāgasena, he replies, but that is a mere name, a convenient designation, for there is no Ego here to be found." "Then", replies the king, "there is no Nāgasena".

"Pray sire, how did you come here ?" "In a chariot."

"What is a chariot ? Is it the pole ?" "No." "The wheels ?" "No". "The chariot-body ?" "No".

the mention of his whip or goad (pratoda) which in Chāg. is called karman (probably "acquired disposition" rather than "volition") and in Maitri, prakṛti-maya.

1 See Barua and Mitra, Prākrit Dhammapada, 98. The rendering is my own with acknowledgments to Dr. Barua and Mrs. Rhys Davids.

2 See Warren, Buddhism in Translations, 129ff.

BUDDHIST CHARIOT-PARABLES

221

there is no chariot." Then the monk goes on to teach the

king that just as the word " chariot " is a convenient name

for the assemblage of pole, axle, wheels, and body, so the word

" Nāgasena " is only a convenient name for body, sensations,

perceptions, consciousness, etc. " In the absolute sense there

is no Ātman or Ego here to be found. " " So the priestess

Vagirā said in the presence of the Blessed One,

" Even as the word ' chariot ' means

That members join to frame a whole,

So, when the groups appear to view,

We use the term, ' A living soul ' .

Here we note that the very same simile which in the Katha

and all Hindu chariot-parables is used to point out that there

must be a Self or Soul as the sustainer of the body and the

directive power behind all its activities, is used to teach the

opposite Buddhist doctrine, i.e. that of anattā, the denial of

any continuing Self.

Buddhaghoṣa in the Visuddhi-magga 1 (5th century A.D.)

expounds the parable as follows, " Just as the word ' chariot '

is but a mode of expression for axle, wheels, body, pole, and

other constituent members, placed in a certain relation to each

other, but when we come to examine the members one by one

we discover that in the absolute sense there is no chariot,—in

exactly the same way the words ' living entity ' and ' Ego '

are but a mode of expression for the presence of five attachment

groups, but when we come to examine the elements of being

one by one we discover that in the absolute sense there is no

living entity there to form a basis for such figments as ' I am '

or ' Ego '.

(5) The Maitri parable. In the Maitri, which is probably

the latest of the classical Upaniṣads, we have a very detailed

development of the Katha chariot-parable (ii. 3 to iv. 4). Here

there is no distinction made between intelligence or reason

(buddhi) and mind (manas), and it is said, " The charioteer is

the mind ". The two classes of indriyāni are clearly dis-

tinguished and it is said that " the horses are the organs of

action " (karmendriyāni) while the senses or organs of perception

(jñānendriyāni) are likened to the reins. As in the Chāgāleya

1 See Warren, B.T.

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APPENDIX II

the soul or self is called the “impeller” or “stimulator” (pracodayitr) of the body. As to the nature of the soul two accounts are given. According to the second prapāthaka there is really only one Soul. “Verily that subtle, ungraspable, invisible one called the Purusa turns in here (in the body) with a part (of himself)... Now assuredly that part of Him is what the intelligence-mass in every person is—the spirit (kṣetra-jña) which has the marks of conception, determination, self-conceit (abhimāna).” This would suggest that individual souls are parts (amsa) of the one Puruṣa, and a picture is given of the Puruṣa, called Prajāpati, differentiating himself and entering in to the living beings he creates that he may enjoy objects. But this is only appearance. The Ātman or Puruṣa seems to wander from body to body but He is only covering himself with a veil of qualities—while remaining fixed like a spectator and self-abiding. “Yea He remains fixed.”

The third prapāthaka gives a different account. It distinguishes between the inner Puruṣa, the great, immortal Ātman, and what it calls the bhūtātman,—the elemental or individual soul. This is called kartr, the doer, while the other Ātman dwells apart, pure and unaffected, “like the drop of water on the lotus leaf ”, and yet it is called “ the causer of action ” (kārayitr). The individual soul, we are told “ is overcome by the qualities (guṇa) of Nature (prakrti) and goes on to confusedness. Now because of confusedness he sees not the blessed Lord, the causer of action, who stands within oneself (ātma-stha). Borne along by the stream of qualities, unsteady, wavering, bewildered, full of desire, distracted, one goes on to a state of self-conceit (abhimānatva). In thinking ‘This is I’ and ‘ That is mine’, he binds himself with his self, as does a bird with a snare.” Here we see certain Sāṃkhya ideas but by no means in a classical Sāṃkhya form, for we are told in the next verse (iii. 3) that the pure Self is not without responsibility for this evil state of the individual. “ Assuredly the bhūtātman is overcome by the inner Puruṣa and beaten by qualities.” This agrees with ii. 6.d. where the Puruṣa or Ātman, called the “Impeller ”, makes use of the whip or goad of prakrti (prakrti-maya pratodana) to drive the body. We may infer (though we are not directly told) that the over-Soul

MAITRI CHARIOT-PARABLE

223

goads the individual to rush round and round amid the fancied delights of material objects that it may be “feed up ” with them (etaih paripūrṇa, iii. 5) and also with its self-conceit, and driven to seek salvation. For this the first rule is, as in the Gītā, pursuit of one’s regular duty. Nothing can make up for lack of this. Then “by knowledge, by discipline (tapas), and by meditation Brahman is apprehended ”. “So when this chariot-rider is liberated from those things wherewith he was filled full and overcome, then he attains complete union (sāyujya) with the Ātman ” (iv. 4).

APPENDIX III.

The Practice of Yoga in the Gītā and Śvetāśvatara,

The Kaṭha Upaniṣad does not give any directions for the practice of Yoga. It is clear, however, that by Yoga it does not mean (as the later Yoga so often did) the production of a hypnotic trance or ecstasy in which knowledge is superseded, but rather a discipline akin to meditative prayer by which all the powers of our being are controlled and concentrated for the vision of the highest. The earliest account of the practice of such dhyāna-yoga is probably that given in Gītā vi. 10–15.

“ Abiding in a secret place, alone, with mind and soul controlled, without craving and without possessions, a Yogin should constantly yoke his soul.

Setting for himself in a clean place a firm seat, neither too high or too low, with kuśa grass, a skin and a cloth spread thereon.

There, sitting on that couch, with thought and sense restrained, making his mind intent (ekāgra, ‘one-pointed ’), he should practise yoga for the cleansing of the soul.

Firm, holding body, head and neck erect and still, gazing at the tip of his nose and not looking around.

Tranquil, free from fear and steadfast in the vow of continence, (brahmacāri-vrata), with mind controlled thinking on Me, so should he sit, yoked, intent only on Me.

Thus ever yoking his soul, the Yogin with mind restrained, attains the peace which culminates in bliss and which abides with Me.”

The Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (ii. 8, 9, 10) gives an almost contemporary and very similar account.

“ Holding his body steady, the three (upper parts) erect, Restraining the senses with the mind in the heart,

224

APPENDIX III

A wise man with the Brahma-boat should cross over

All the fear-producing streams.

Repressing his breathing here (in the body), with movements

controlled,

One should breathe through the nostrils with diminished breath ;

Like that chariot yoked with vicious horses,

A wise man, undistracted, should restrain his mind.

In a clean place, free from pebbles, fire, and gravel,

By the sound of water and other surroundings

Favourable to thought, not offensive to the eye,

In a hidden retreat, sheltered from the wind, he should practise

yoga.

In both these accounts it is clear that place and posture

are not regarded as important for their own sake, but are only

means to secure undistractedness of meditation. On this

matter even the much later Yoga-sūtras of Patañjali are content

to say, " The posture should be steady and easy " (sthira-sukham

āsanam). Re-breathing, the Gītā in the passage quoted says

nothing, though in iv. 29, it refers to prānāyāma (restraint of

breath) as a kind of sacrifice offered by some ascetics, and

v. 27, advocates level, steady breathing during meditation.

The later Yoga, on the other hand, attached exaggerated

importance to prānāyāma, ascribing to it the acquisition of all

kinds of super-normal powers, and we see the beginnings of

this even in the Śvetāśvatara (see ii. 11, 12).

The point, however to which we desire to draw attention is

that both in the Gītā and Śvetāśvatara the practice of yoga as

quoted above is essentially of the nature of contemplative prayer.

In commenting on the word Vipaścit (ii. 18, p. 105) and also in

our account of contemplative sacrifice in the Introduction,

p. 23, we pointed out that the fountain-head of the idea of

yoga seems to be found in the prayers to Savitṛ (whose stimula-

tion or inspiration enables the worshipper to " yoke mind and

thought "), which occupy a central place in the directions for

the piling of the fire-altar both in the Taittirīya and the Kāṭhaka

Saṃhitās of the Yajur Veda. In introducing its description of

yoga, Svet. (ii. 1-7) first quotes these verses :

Yoking first of all the mind

And thoughts for truth, Savitṛ,

THE PRACTICE OF YOGA

225

Discerning the light of Agni,

Brought it down to earth.

With mind well-yoked are we,

By inspiration of god Savitṛ,

With strength for gaining heaven.

They yoke their minds and yoke their thoughts,

The sages of the great wise Sage.

With Savitṛ as inspirer,

One should joy in the ancient prayer,

If there thou makest thy source,

The past besmears thee not.

Whether the brahma pūrvyam of the last verse be rendered "ancient prayer" or "ancient Brahman" the reference to prayer as the inspiring power for ordered thought and life is very clear. It is tempting to see in "ancient prayer" a reference to the Gāyatrī, but, whether this is so or not, the use of the term pracodayitṛ ("stimulator") of the Ātman in both the Chāgaleya and Maitri chariot parables is plainly derived from the Gāyatrī. The Maitri indeed directly quotes,

"Let us meditate upon the adorable splendour

of that divine Vivifier (Savitṛ) :

May He inspire our thoughts."

(dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt),—

and interprets of the adhyātman saying, "Assuredly the Soul of one's soul is called the Immortal Leader" (vi. 7).

In the Gītā the matter is plainer still. "Unswerving devotion to Me through undivided yoga, resort to a solitary place and distaste for the concourse of men", in words like these the nature of yoga in its highest aspect as the prayer of communion is made manifest. In the Kaṭha it is true this intensely personal yoga of bhakti is not attained, yet it seems clear that by yoga the Kaṭha, like the Gītā, means not only the discipline of control but the prayer of communion which inspires it. (Where the Kaṭha definitely falls short of the Gītā, however, is that it does not have anything to say about karma-yoga,— the right running of the chariot along the highway of social life.)

226

APPENDIX III

Epilogue.

We have insisted, perhaps ad nauseam, on the religious nature of yoga in the Katha just because, as we have said, yoga has so often meant something quite different in spirit, though making use of somewhat the same outward practices—a negative yoga of suppression rather than a positive yoga of ordered control, a yoga which spite of its formal recognition of Īśvara is often essentially atheistic, a yoga which seeks not the illumination of a higher knowledge in communion with God but hypnotic trance or ecstasy in which all things fall away and the self is left isolated, in kaivalya, void of all conscious content. Even in its higher expression, e.g. in the Yoga-sūtras of Patañjali, this negative yoga, to which so much of India's highest effort has been devoted, has been a sadly sterile aberration. Just because India so greatly needs the positive yoga of control and self-realisation through communion, the essential diversity of the negative yoga of suppression and the extinction of personality must be so strongly insisted on.

In conclusion, one might perhaps profitably inquire wherein has lain the great attraction of this negative yoga for the Indian mind. One clue is given in the words of Professor Manilal Dvivedi in his Introduction to The Yoga-sūtra of Patañjali (p. ii), “The rule is clear that extinction of personality is the only way to real progress and peace. When one consciously suppresses individuality….he becomes part and parcel of the immutable course of nature, and never suffers.” This attitude Buddhist pessimism. The Buddha, whether consciously or unconsciously, confused the metaphysical and the ethical meanings of ahamkāra. He rightly saw that ahamkāra, egoism or selfish individualism, is the root-cause of the sin and misery that set the world aflame and he went on to teach that the only way to cure it is to eradicate the notion of ahamkāra in the sense of self-conscious individuality or personality. This confusion, excusable perhaps in a teaching which had lost God and therefore could not find salvation in recalling man to the divine basis of his being, was inherited by Hindu teachings which professed to condemn Buddhism as atheistic,—by the

EPILOGUE

227

Yoga of Patañjali and also in a different form by the Vedāntism of Śaṅkara. It has even in part infected such theistic doctrines as Śaivism and Vaiṣṇavism.

There was a further inheritance also. Buddha, like the early Upaniṣad teachers, believed in the saving power of knowledge applied in a life of discipline. Some of his later followers, despairing of knowledge, sought for a short cut and they seemed to find it in the disappearance of the consciousness both of the outer world and of their own individuality in a state of trance. Hindu negative yoga also took the same fatal short cut.

So to-day the same message comes to India's youth as came to Naciketas, “ Arise, awake ! Obtain your boons and understand ! ”—the boon of the knowledge of God, promised to those who truly seek, no philosophic abstraction but Soul of our soul, our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer; the boon of the knowledge of ourselves, utterly weak and unworthy if we live in selfish isolation, yet sons of God, of infinite worth and unmeasured potency if yoked in communion with Divine wisdom and power ; and the boon of service, of the privilege of using all the powers of our being, raised to their highest through communion with Him, in His service through the service of our fellow-men.

228

APPENDIX IV.

'Faith essential in Yoga.'

Additional Note on the interpretation of Kaṭha vi. 12, 13.

Asti ity bruvato 'nyatra

katham tad upalabhyate ?

We have taken bruvataḥ as ablative after anyatra, and render, "Otherwise than (by one) saying, 'He is', how is that one apprehended ?"

Or, more freely, "Except by one who says, 'He is', how can He be experienced ?"

Professor F. W. Thomas has suggested that it would be better to render, "Otherwise than from one who says, 'He is'," i.e. from a true guru. I note that Geldner also (V.B. 168) adopts the same rendering.

"Wie könnte es anders erfasst werden als von einem (Lehrer), der sagt, er ist ?" "How could He otherwise be apprehended than from one (i.e. a Teacher) who says, 'He is' ?" Charpentier also who follows him says that he gives the only possible meaning. Among Indian commentators Madhva interprets in the same way.

With all deference to such authorities I still venture to think that the rendering I have adopted is grammatically quite as admissible and, on the whole, preferable. In any case the assertion of the need of faith remains, even though it is in the first place the teacher's faith which is communicated to his pupil.

I note that Whitney, Arabinda Ghose, Sitarama Sastri, and Tattva-bhusan render substantially as I have done. The gist of Śaṅkara's comment is, Śraddadhānād anyatra....katham tad brahma tattvataḥ ~

upalabhyate ? "Except by a man who has faith, how can Brahman be truly apprehended ?"

Verse 13. Carrying on the idea of teacher and pupil, Professors Thomas, Geldner, and Charpentier all interpret ubhayoh as meaning "for both (teacher and scholar)". So Geldner renders, "Nur mit dem Wort 'er ist' wird er fassbar als das wahre Wesen für beide. 'Er ist', wer ihn so auffasst, dem wird sein wahres Wesen klar". "Only with the statement, 'He is' does He become apprehensible as the true Essence, for both (teacher and scholar). 'He is',—who so apprehends Him, to him His true essence (substance or nature) becomes clear". Thomas renders, "Only by the statement, 'He is', is He to be known in His true nature, by both parties".

Geldner however apparently has certain doubts, for he gives the alternative, "as the true essence of both : i.e. of both the personal and the highest Ātman". He also adds, "according to Rāghavendra, however, of the Prakṛti and Puruṣa of the Sāṁkhya philosophy".

229

APPENDIX V.

Notes on the Dirghatamas Hymn.

1* (1) Asya vāmasya palitasyā hotus

tasyā bhrātā madhyamo asty aśnah,

Tṛtīyo bhrātā gḥtaprṣṭho asya

atra apasyam viśpatim saptaputram.

Ancient of days : Geldner, altersgrauen,—hoary with age. The word

palita which originally appears to mean grey or pale (cf. Gk. πελιτνός,

πολικός, L. pallidus, E. pale), seems at first inapplicable to the sun,

but through the meaning grey-haired, hoary with age, it comes, like

πολικός to mean ancient, venerable. Cf. Daniel's description of the

Ancient of days (vii. 9) and Revelation i. 13-16. Also Francis Thompson's

Orient Ode.

Vāma : cf. the Upakosala-vidyā, Ch. iv. 15. 2.

Aśna is taken by Sāyaṇa to mean sarvatra vyāpta (all-pervading)

and is interpreted as referring to Air (Vāyu). Sāyaṇa apparently derives

from 1 √aś—to reach, attain, but most modern philologists from from 2 √aś

(aśnāti)—to eat (so B.R., Uhlenbeck), so that it means the voracious

(B.R.) or hungry one (Geldner, der Hungrige). B.R. apply to Lightning,

but Geldner denies both this and Sāyaṇa's interpretation, taking the

three brothers as the three sacrificial fires,—the Āhavanīya, the Dakṣiṇa

and the Gārhapatya, the Dakṣiṇa being called “hungry ” because the

sacrifices come preferably to the Āhavanīya. This is not convincing.

There is a certain truth, since the Āhavanīya represents the celestial

Agni, the Dakṣiṇa is connected with the antarikṣa and the Gārhapatya

with the household. But, as Keith remarks, the three forms of Agni

explain the three altar fires and not vice versa (R.P.V. 157). Aśna then

is probably the lightning fire and may perhaps be regarded as a variant of

the more common name aśani. Now aśani appears in various passages,

e.g. V.S. xxxix. 8, and Ś.B. vi. 1. 3. 7 as cognate with Rudra or Mahādeva,

the destroyer, and they are said to be forms of Agni.

Atra (Here) may mean in the first brother (the Sun) or the third brother

(so Geldner who says that the Gārhapatya fire is Stammherrn (Viśpati—

Lord of the race or family). Or again it may refer to all three brothers :

so Sāyaṇa says atra=atreṣu bhrātṛṣu madhye,—taking Viśpati as Para-

meśvara, the supreme Lord, manifest in three forms.

2* (2) Sapta yunjanti ratham ekacakram,

eko aśvo vahati saptanāmā;

Trinābhiḥ cakram ajaram anarvaṃ

yatra imā viśvā bhuvanā 'dhi tasthuh.

230

APPENDIX V

3* (4) Kodadarśa prathamam jāyāmānam,

asthavamtam yad anasthā bibharti;

Bhumyā asur asrg atmā kvā svit,

ko vidvāmsam upa gāt praṣtum etat.

Geldner renders line c, "Where is the life-spirit, blood, and soul of the

earth". So, in effect, Griffith, Regnaud, and Whitney. Geldner inter-

prets of the first living being and mother carth. Sāyaṇa of the avyakta or

avyākṛta (the prakṛti of the Sāṃkhyas or Īśvarāyatta or "God-dependent"

māyā of the Vedantins) and the created or manifest world.

4* (6) Acikitvān cikituṣa cid atra

kavīn prcāmi vidmane na vidvān,

Vi yas tastambha śal imā rajāṃsy

ajasya rūpe kim api svid ekam.

5* (20) Dva suparṇā sayujā sakhāyā

samānām vrkṣam pari ṣasvajāte,

Tayor anyah pippalam svādv atty

anasnann anyo abhi cākaśīti.

Geldner interprets the tree as the tree of knowledge, and the birds as

two kinds of seekers after knowledge,—those who seek the higher wisdom

and the non-speculative.

6* So Sāyaṇa. Regnaud considers Agni is the speaker.

(33) Dyaur me pitā janitā nābhir atra

bandhur me mātā prthivī mahīyam.

Nābhir atra—‘Here’s the navel’ or connecting link. Sāyaṇa says atra=

asmin antarikṣe—‘this mid-world’. Cf. x. 90. 14, and note that x. 90. 16,

is identical with I. 164. 50. Or nābhi may refer to the Sun, the seat of

Vivasvat, father of Yama, the first man. (Keith, R.P.V. 113.)

231

INDEX

abhimāna, self-conceit, 222.

Absolute, The, 99, 183, 192.

Absolute Idealism, see Idealism.

adhyātma, 92, 94, 225.

adhyātma-yoga, 79, 90-5, 99, 205.

adhvaryu, offering priest, 102.

Aditi, 117, 157-9.

Āditya, 13, 14, 102, 172.

advaita, non-dualism, 2, 26, 168-9.

Agni, 12, 15, 25, 61, 69, 70, 72, 102, 160, 177, 186, 229 ;

The Triune, 12, 13, 73, 172, 229.

agnihotra, fire-offering, 71.

ahaṃkāra, ethically, egoism, 1, 226 ; metaphysically, the principle of individuation, 131-2, 226.

aham brahmāsmi, ‘I am Brahman’, 32.

āhavanīya fire, 71, 229.

aja, unborn, 14, 103.

Ajātaśatru, King of Kāśi, teaching of, (Br. ii, 1), 31.

Ajātasattu, King of Magadhā, 43.

Ajita Kesakambalin, 43.

Air, one yet manifold, 177.

Aitareya Āranyaka, 10, 22, 28, 216-8.

Aitareya Brāhmaṇa, 102, 218.

Aitareya Upaniṣad 6-10, 35.

akṣara, word, imperishable, =Om, 100-2 ; epithet of Brahman, 121.

Imperishable, a name for Brahman as basis of the world and of souls, in Br., 33, 140 ; in A.Ā., 217 ; in E.M.U. 141 ; so=avyakta in Gītā, 48, 138ff., 146.

Akṣara, by Dr. P. M. Modi, 140-1.

alinga puruṣa, 191.

Amen, 102.

Anattā, Buddhist doctrine, 42-3, 174, 203.

aṇu, subtle, atom ; of Brahman as Ātman, anīyān anupramānāt, subtler than the subtle, 84 ; aṇum eva āpya, 95 ; anor anīyān, 106.

ānanda, bliss, an attribute of Brahman, 35-6.

Ānanda-vallī, Bliss chapter of Tait., 35.

Ānandajñāna, or Ānandagiri, commentator on Śaṅkara, c. 1250, 87, 159.

antarātman, Inner-self, 46, 148, 177-180, 209.

antaryāmin, Inner-ruler, 33, 41, 140.

apāna, in-breath, 173.

apramāda, vigilant concentration, 44, 198 ;—Pāli appamādo.

apramatta, undistracted, 41, 44, 198.

Apsara, celestial nymph, 77.

aṅguṣṭha-mātra puruṣa, thumb-sized person, 29, 164-6, 209.

Āraṇyakas, Forest-books, 22.

Aristotle, 180.

Āṛeya Upaniṣad, 9, 27.

Āruṇi, see Uddālaka, 62, 65.

asamāhita, unprepared, 115.

aśna, meaning discussed, 229.

Aśoka, 43, 44, 198.

asti, ‘He, or it, exists’, 75, 202-4.

asu, life-breath or spirit, 17, 28.

asura, evil spirit, 21.

Āśvalāyana Gṛhya-sūtra, 101.

aśvamedha, horse-sacrifice, 23.

aśvattha, pipal tree, 185.

ataraxia, ἀταραξία, 107.

Atharva Veda, 6 ; Upaniṣadas of, 7 ; Brahman in, 24-5 ; Gandharvas in, 188 ; quotation from, 45, 161.

232

THE KAṬHA UPANIṢAD

atheism, 10, 131-3, 203.

athletic life and yoga, 2.

Ātman, Self or Soul, in Introduction :

etymology, 27-8;

in the Ṛg Veda, 14;

in A.A., symbolised by the

uktha, progressively manifest

in trees, animals and man,

217 ; =the chief life-power, 28 ;

in Ch., the person in the eye,

27 ;

in Br., the vijñānamaya puruṣa,

the source of life and intelli-

gence and reality of reality,

30, 31.

Is the Ātman doctrine a revolt ?

Related growth of ātman and

puruṣa concepts, 30 ;

identification with Brahman, 27,

30-4 ;

Is the Ātman knowable ? 35-9 ;

two forms, individual and Sup-

reme, jīvātman and paramāt-

man, 15, 34 ;

one Self doctrine, 32-4, 104, 166 ;

no Self doctrine, 42-4.

Ātman in the Kaṭha :

subtle and difficult to know, 84 ;

not obtainable by reasoning, 85 ;

knowable through a guru, 84-5 ;

deeply hidden, yet perceptible by

adhyātma-yoga, 90 ;

joy of knowing this Spirit, 95 ;

deeper than duty, action or time,

98 ;

(Does this mean that the Ātman

is an unqualified, supra-moral

Absolute ? 95-100.)

unborn, undying, eternal, 103 ;

spaceless, hidden in the heart,

106 ;

visible through Divine grace, 106 ;

active yet effortless, omnipresent,

111 ;

gained not by learning but by

self-revelation, 112 ;

by one morally prepared, 115.

The two selves, shadow and light,

The soul, lord of a chariot, 123 ;

hidden, yet seen by subtle seers,

129 ;

with eyes averted from sense-

objects, 143 ;

the perceiving subject, 152 ;

Lord of the past and the future,

153, 164 ;

born of tapas and the waters, 155 ;

manifest as life, 158 ;

source and abiding place of all

deities, 161 ;

embodied as thumb-sized, yet

eternal Lord, 164 ;

Lord of the city of the body,

170 ;

and omnipresent, 172 ;

eternal yet transmigrating, 175 ;

ground of the world, 176 ;

immanent yet transcendent, 177 ;

untouched by pain, 179 ;

source of perpetual joy and peace,

181 ;

light of the world, 183 ;

called alinga puruṣa, 190 ;

knowledge of whom gives freedom

and immortality, 190 ;

not seen by the eye, yet appre-

hended by heart and thought,

194 ;

through yoga, 196 ;

faith leads to vision, 202 ;

vision to immortality, 207.

Ātma-stha, standing in the soul, 181.

Auddalāka Āruni, name of Vāja-

sravasa, 64-5, or a name of

Naciketas ? 65.

austerity or asceticism, see tapas.

avidyā, ajñāna, Ignorance, 32, 81,

134, 163, 179, 207.

avyakta, in Kaṭha, 129-146, 190, 213;

in Gītā, 48, 138ff., 146;

in Sāṃkhya, 131;

in Śaṅkara, 135;

in Rāmānuja, 136-7;

in Nimbārka and Madhva, 137.

Bādarāyaṇa, author of Vedānta-sūtras, 11.

bāla, child=fool, 83.

bālya, child-like simplicity, 83.

Bālāki Gārgya, conversation with Ajātaśatru, 30.

Barnett, L. D., 138.

Barua, B. M., 198, 220.

Bāṣkala Upaniṣad, 9

Belvalkar, S. K., 8-11, 22, 28, 42, 47.

Bernard of Clairvaux, 169.

Besnagar pillar inscription, 44, 190.

Birds, Parable of the, 15.

Bhāgavata, 44.

Bhagavad-gītā, see Gītā.

bhakti, 114.

Bhakti-sūtra of Nārada, 201.

Bhandarkar, Sir R. G., 193.

Bhaṭṭabhāskara Mīśra, 58, 65, 215-6.

Black Yajur Veda, 40.

Blake, William, 151.

Böhtlingk, Otto, 64, 187, 212.

Brahmacārin, religious student, 101, 115, personal form of Brahman in A.V., 25.

brahmacarya, 101, 115, 223.

brahma-ja-jña, 72.

Brahman, in Introduction :

Meaning in Ṛg Veda, 24.

A.V., 24-5.

Brāhmaṇas, 25.

The One God, (Yājñavalkya), 26.

Story in Kena, 25-6.

The Golden Person in sun, 27.

Identified with Ātman, 17, 30-4.

Is Brahman knowable ? 35-9 ;

saccidānanda, 35 ;

unknowability of the knower, 36 ;

Śaṅkara's answer : the two Brah-mans, 36-7.

Yājñavalkya's mysticism, 37 ;

in Īśā and Kena, 38.

The teaching of the Kaṭha, 38-9.

Brahman, in the Kaṭha text:

symbolised by Om, 101 ;

bridge to the fearless shore, 121 ;

hidden, everlasting, =ātman, 175 ;

the pure, immortal, unsleeping inner person, on whom the worlds depend, 176 ;

compared to an aśvattha tree, 185 ;

called Prāṇa (Life), from which the world evolves, 186 ;

the mysterium tremendum, 186 ;

attainment of, 207.

Naciketas obtained, 211 ;

see also Ātman in the Kaṭha.

Brahman, in the Commentary, 58, 72, 79, 85, 88, 94, 99, 100-2, 104, 107, 111, 116, 121, 134, 137, 140, 142, 148, 153, 159, 162-6, 180-1, 185-8, 190, 195, 203-5, 210.

Brahmán, m.nm. Brahmā, =Saguṇa Brahman, 72, 88, 134, 157.

Brahmā, the Creator, 89, 102, 156, 189.

brahma-vid, Brahma-knower, 118.

Brahma-world (brahma-loka), 89, 116, 145, 189.

Brahmins (brāhmaṇa), high position of, 19, 62 ;

taught by Kṣatriyas, 62 ;

What makes a Brahmin ? 219.

brahmodya, theological riddle, 13.

Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad, 5-11, 23, 30, 32, 33, 35-7, 42, 45, 46, 61-3, 83, 100, 115-7, 121, 124, 150, 154, 156, 161-2, 166, 175-6, 181, 188, 192, 208, 210.

Bṛhaddevatā, 44.

Bṛhat-saṃhitā, 120.

Buddha, 42-4, 77, 180, 198, 226.

Buddhaghoṣa, 221.

234 THE KAṬHA UPANIṢAD

buddhi, reason, intellect, 123-5, 128-32, 191, 221.

Buddhist chariot-parables, 220-1; dharma, 220;

doctrine of anattā, 42-3, 174, 203, 226;

pre-Buddhist date of Kaṭha ?, 75.

Bunyan, John, 171.

Cārvākas, a school of materialists, 75, 174.

Caste, origin of, 19.

Causality, 100.

Cave, Hidden in the, (niḥitam guhāyām, guhā-hita), 68, 91; Lodged in the (guhām praviṣṭa), 118.

Entering the (guhām praviśya), 155.

Chāgaleya Upaniṣad, 9, 218-20.

Chāndogya Upaniṣad, 6-10, 23, 31, 35, 38, 44, 62, 98, 101, 104, 106, 153, 156, 175, 176, 199, 207-10.

Chariot (ratha), 77, 122-8, 216-23, 229.

Charpentier, Jarl, 41, 43, 44, 65, 72, 82, 93, 228.

Childlikeness (bālya), 37, 83.

Child-sages (bāliśās), 219.

citta-vṛtti-nirodha, Yoga defined as, 93, 199.

City, Parable of the, 170-1.

Coleridge, S. T., 150.

control of the senses, etc., 51, 123-9, 136, 142-3, 196-200, 218, 223, 226.

Controller, Inner, 33, 41, 140.

The One, 181.

Cosmogonic hymns of Ṛg X, 15-20.

Cosmogonism, 9, 10.

creation, 16–20 ; Creation-hymn, 16.

Creator, Prajāpati, 25, 89 ; Brahmā, 89 ;

Grace of the, 106-110.

Cūlikā Upaniṣad, 8.

dakṣiṇa (or southern) sacrificial fire, 71, 229.

dakṣiṇā, gift to a priest, 59.

Dasgupta, S. N., v, vii, x, 20, 48, 62, 93, 134.

death, (mrtyu), bodily decay, 17, 66 ;

compared to curry-spice, 116 ; the meaning of, 77-8.

Death (Mrtyu), a name of Yama. 26, 56, 59, 61, 66, 79, 145, 186, 215 ;

a name for Brahman, 117 ; the snare of, 151, 165.

dehin, the embodied soul, 173, 175.

desire (kāma), 16, 17, 58, 107, 207-8 ;

objects of, (kāmāḥ), 76-7, 177 ; renunciation of, (virāga), 79, 207 : fulfilment of, (kāmasyāpti), 87 ;

leads to reincarnation, 163 ; destroying chariot, 218.

Deussen, Paul, ix, 6-11, 20, 27, 31-5, 65, 70, 87, 88, 91, 96, 98, 102, 107, 109-111, 120, 134, 157, 167, 176, 192-3, 201, 203-4.

deva, resplendent, divine, god, 17, 72, 91, 111 ; devāḥ, name for the senses, 173, 217.

devayāna, path of the gods, 188.

Dhammapada, 44, 198, 220.

dhāraṇā, concentration, 197, 206. indriya-dhāraṇā, control of the senses, 41, 197.

dharma, meaning discussed, 96 ; anyatra dharmād, 98-9 ; dharmān prthak paśyan, 167-8 ; Buddhist, 220.

dharmyam, 96.

Dhātṛ, Creator, 108-110.

dhātu, element, 108.

dhyāna, contemplative meditation, 197, 206 ; dhyāna-yoga, way of meditation ; dhyāna-yajña, contemplative sacrifice, 23.

Dirghatamas, Vedic seer, 15. Hymn of, 13-15, 29, 216, 229, 230.

discipline, need of, 23, 115;

power for, 2.

Divine grace, 106, 112;

election, 112, 113; love, 113;

activity and rest, 111;

immanence and omnipresence, 111, 178;

omnipotence, lordship, 181.

impassiveness, 180.

revelation, 112.

dream-consciousness, 176-7.

duty (dharma), 98.

Dvivedi, Manilal, 226.

dwarf (vāmana), 173.

Dyans, Heaven-god, 70.

Edgerton, Franklin, 93.

egoism, ego-centrism, 1, 3, 46, 200.

eko vāśī, The One Controller, 181.

elemental soul (bhūtatman), 222.

Epicurus, 161.

etad vai tat, 'This truly is that', 152, 153, 154, 155, 160, 161, 164, 170, 173, 176, 184.

eternal, of the Atman, 103.

eternity, (or infinity, ānantya), 145.

Ethics, 98, 99.

ethical preconditions for inquiry into Brahman, 25, 38-9, 79, 115-6.

evil, beyond good and, 99.

faith, i.e. reverence (śraddhā), 57, 79.

i.e. the ontological postulate, 202.

Farquhar, J. N., v, vii, x, 7,

fear, 66, 186; fearlessness, 154.

fearless shore, 87, 121.

fire, source of the worlds, 70;

sacrificial, 70, 71, 86;

altar, 69, 72, 105;

symbol of Brahman, 13, 27, 68, 161;

one yet manifold, 177;

fire-sticks, 160.

Gandharvas, 188.

Gandharva-world, 187-9.

Garbe, Richard, 20.

gārhapatya fire, 71, 229.

Garutman or Garuḍa, the sun-bird, 15.

Gautama, i.e. descendant of Gotama, applied to Uddālaka Āruṇi, 62;

" Vājaśravasa, 64, 65;

" Naciketas, 167, 175;

" teacher of Bharadvāja (Āṛṣeya), 27.

" Buddha, 42, 180, 198.

Gāyatrī, 105, 225.

Geldner, K. F., 72, 82, 108, 113, 187, 188, 202, 228, 229, 230.

Genesis, 149.

Ghora Āṅgirasa, teaching of, 23.

Ghose, Arabinda, 97, 107, 228.

Gītā, 18, 20, 23, 47-9, 82, 92, 94, 96, 103, 104, 106, 109, 113, 138-143, 146, 171, 192, 223-5.

God (deva), Prajāpati called the one God (deva ekah), 17;

Agni called deva idyah, 71;

perceiving God (devam matvā), 90;

madāmodo devah, 110.

gods, nourished by sacrifice, 21;

supplanting of Vedic gods, 25;

number of the, 26;

contest of gods and asuras, 21;

existence of gods recognised, 161;

but all fixed in Brahman, 161.

Brahman called the one God, 26;

good and evil, do dharma and adharma mean ? 98;

the Absolute beyond, 99.

Gough, A. E., ix, 103, 108.

guhā-hita, set in the cave, 91;

see Cave.

guṇas, Sāṃkhya doctrine of, 191.

Grace, Divine, 3, 39, 106, 112.

Heaven, 56, 59, 63, 66, 71, 89;

Kingdom of, 121.

236

THE KAṬHA UPANIṢAD

Hebrews, Epistle to the, 77, 203.

Hegel, quoted, 95.

Hill, W. D. P., 49, 93, 138, 185.

Hillebrandt, Alfred, 24, 65, 72, 76.

Hiraṇyagarbha, 17, 18, 20, 28,

72, 88-90, 133-5, 156-9.

Hiraṇyagarba-sūkta, Ṛg X. 121,

17, 18.

Holy, The, 95.

Honey-eater (madhvada), 153.

hotṛ, reciting priest, 102.

Hume, R. E., 65, 72, 77, 85-7, 91,

96, 98, 107, 108, 119, 152,

155, 157, 163, 167, 171, 176,

193, 201-2, 204.

Idealism, idealistic monism, 9-11,

32-4, 180, 208.

Ignorance (avidyā), 32, 81, 134,

163, 179, 207.

Illusion, 32, 36, 100, 104, 150, 179,

Immortality, 17, 19, 56, 78, 105,

190, 192, 209.

Indra, 12, 15, 25, 178, 186.

indriyāṇi, 'senses', 122-5, 129-

131, 136, 190, 218, 221.

indriya-dhāraṇā, control of the

senses, 41, 197.

Inge, Dean, 150.

Īśā Upaniṣad, 1, 6-9, 12, 38, 111.

iṣṭā-pūrte, sacrifices and good

works, 56, 63, 215.

Īśvara, Lord, Ruler, 36, 134, 157.

Īśa,

Īśana,

Jagannāth, "World-Lord", car of,

14, 216.

Jātavedas, All-knower, a name of

Agni, 72, 160.

Jesus Christ, 107, 121, 143, 195,

jīva, jīvātman, the individual soul,

32, 120, 153.

jñāna, knowledge, 5, 24,

a characteristic of Brahman, 35.

= jñāna ātman, the self of know-

ledge (Kaṭha iii, 13), 129.

jñāna-mārga, the way of knowledge,

24, 35, 79.

jñāna-yoga (in the Gītā), 93.

jñāna-prasāda, the peace of know-

ledge (Muṇḍ. iii, 1. 8), 109,

kaivalya, isolation, in Yoga-sūtra,

93, 226.

kāma, see desire.

Kant, Immanuel, doctrine of the

transcendental self, 35.

karman, 175; reincarnation, yathā

karma.

karma-mārga, the way of works.

karma-yoga, Gītā method of salva-

tion by selfless performance of

duty, 93, 225.

Kaṭha, the ṛṣi, 40.

Kāṭhaka Samhitā, 21, 23, 40, 105.

Kauṣītaki Upaniṣad, 6-9, 45, 62,

175, 188.

Kavasa Ailūṣa, 218.

Keith, A. B., x, 8-11, 24, 42, 44,

47, 62, 93, 100, 102, 105,

158, 172, 175, 192, 216-8, 229.

Kena Upaniṣad, 6-8, 25, 37.

knowledge of the Brahman-Ātman,

the way of salvation, 24, 35,

79,

Brahman is an object of know-

ledge, 35,

the knowing self cannot be

known, 36,

two orders of knowledge, 36,

moral preconditions of know-

ledge, 39, 79, 115,

Naciketas eager for knowledge,

81;

delivers from sorrow, 111,

only possible to the elect, 112,

saves from fear, 153,

leads to union with Brahman,

167,

through self-revelation, 183,

determines reincarnation, 187,

leads to immortality, 194.

Kṣatriyas, instruct Brahmins, 62.

Lanman, C. R., 96, 207, 208.

liberation, from sorrow, 111,

from fear, 153,

from desire, 207,

from the knots of the heart, 207,

from evil and death, 211.

life (breath), see asu, prāṇa,

light, realm of, 89,

Prajāpati as highest, 89,

Brahman the self-luminous light

of the world, 183.

lightning, 13, 229.

linga, meaning of, 191;

Śiva-linga, 193.

Kṛṣṇa, 48, 82, 103.

Kṛṣṇa Devakīputra (Ch. iii, 17),

Macdonell, A. A., ix, 8, 16, 40, 62,

112, 119, 160.

Madhva, vii, ix, 120, 137, 228.

madāmada deva, 111.

Mahābhārata, 132, 165, 193, 213.

Mahānārāyaṇa Upaniṣad, 6-9, 47,

108, 165, 194.

Mahān ātmā, Great soul, 20, 190,

Ātmā mahān, 129, 132-6,

Mahātman, 88.

mahat, Sāṃkhya=buddhi, 21, 131.

= Ātmā mahān, 129, 132.

Maitri Upaniṣad, 6-9, 109, 165,

191-3, 205, 209, 221-3.

man, the clearest expression of the

Ātman, 217;

unsatisfied like the sea ; desires

the immortal, 217.

manas, 'mind', 123-5, 129-131,

190, 195, 221.

Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad, 6-9, 201.

maniṣā, reflective thought, 195.

Mansel, Dean, 165.

Manu, Code of, 156.

Mātariśvān, 15.

Materialism, 43, 75.

Materialists called fools, 82, 83.

māyā, illusion, 32, 36, 134-5, 137,

māyā-vādā, doctrine of illusion, 11.

Metre of the Katha, 44.

Milinda (Menander), 220.

Mitra, 12, 15, 102.

Modi, P. M., 138-141.

Monism, 2, 26, 32-4, 168-9, 180.

Morality, see Ethics.

Müller, F. Max, 12, 59, 60, 70, 77,

85, 86, 91, 96, 98, 107, 108,

152, 176, 188, 199, 204, 212.

mumukṣutva, desire for salvation, 79.

Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad, 6-9, 15, 44-9,

98, 109, 115, 120, 141, 169,

192, 207.

mysterium tremendum, 25, 186.

mysticism, 2, 3, 24, 37, 146, 165,

169, 203.

Nāciketa fire-sacrifice, 41, 56, 71,

121, 215.

Nāgasena, Buddhist monk, 220.

name and form, nāma-rūpa, 169.

Nārada, seer, 207.

Nārada-bhakti-sūtra, 201.

Nārāyaṇa, list of Upaniṣads, 6,

(S.U.V. 538).

Nāstikas, 42, 43, 56, 75, 203.

Naturalistic pantheism, 27.

Nature powers, worship of, 12.

Influence of, 149-150.

symbolism in Valli iv, 151ff.

Natura genetrix, Mother Nature,

prakṛti, q.v.

Nimbārka, author of Vedānta-

pārijāta-saurabha, advaitādvaita

commentary on the Vedānta-

sūtras, vii, 33, 120, 137, 166,

nirvāṇa, 220.

nididhyāsana, steady meditation,

nihitaṃ guhāyāṃ, 68, 91, see Cave.

Oldenberg, H., 8.

Oltramare, Paul, 93.

Om, 55, 79, 100-103, 211.

One soul theory, 32-4, 104, 166,

Otto, Rudolf, 26, 93.

238 THE KAṬHA UPANIṢAD

Oupnekhat, 6.

pain, misery (duḥkha), 179, 180.

palita, ancient, 229.

pañcāgni, having or maintaining five fires, so pañcāgnayah, pious householders, 118.

Pāṇini, grammarian, 4th cent. B.C., 93.

Pantheism, 9, 10, 27, 146, 182.

Paramātman, the Supreme Self, 120.

Parameśvara, the Supreme Lord, 149.

Parmenides, 33.

Patañjali, author of Mahābhāsya, 40;

author of Yoga-sūtras, 92, 93, 197, 205, 224, 226.

Patripassianism, 186.

Pelly, R. L., xiv, 152.

pitṛ-loka, world of the Fathers, 188.

Plato, Phædrus, 125-6;

Republic, 127 ; Symposium, 149.

Plotinus, 149.

pracodayitṛ, impeller, stimulator, 219, 222, 225.

Prajāpati, Creator-god, 13, 17, 18, 21, 23, 25, 28, 89, 102, 105, 148, 188, 222.

Prajāpati-world, 188-9.

prajñātman, the intelligent self, 35, 219.

Prakṛti, nature, matter, of the Sāṃkhya, 131 ;

Is the Avyakta of the Kaṭha prakṛti, and if so in what sense? 132-7,

in the Gītā, parā and aparā prakṛti, 139 ; parā prakṛti, Higher Nature=akṣara avyakta, called jīvabhūtā, 139.

in the Maitri, the goad of prakṛti, 222.

pramāda, slackness, 115.

prāṇa, life-breath, 25, 28, 161, 173, 186, 218.

a name for Brahman as Ātman, 161, 186.

prāṇāḥ, the life-powers or organs, 124.

pranava, a name for Om, 102.

prāṇāyāma, restraint of breath, 197, 224.

prasāda, grace or tranquillity, 108-9.

Praśna Upaniṣad, 6-9, 47, 141.

pratiṣṭhā, foundation or abode, 68, 73, 87-9.

pratyagātman, individual self, 94, 148.

pravṛhya, having extracted, pravṛhya dharmyam, 96.

Puruṣa, Man or person, in Ṛg (Puruṣa-sūkta), 19 ;

A.V. and Ś.B., 29 ;

person in the sun, Bṛ. ii. 1, Ch. i. 6, etc., 27, 30.

person in the eye, Bṛ. ii. 1, Ch. iv. 15, etc., 27, 30.

A.Ā., mukhya-prāṇa=puruṣa=ātman, 28.

Bṛ. i. 4, ātmā puruṣavidhaḥ, 30.

ii. 1, vijñānamaya puruṣa, 30.

iii. 9, aupaniṣada puruṣa, 30.

in Kaṭha, aṅguṣṭha-mātra-puruṣa, 29, 164-6, 209.

higher than the avyakta, 129, 190, than which there is nothing higher, the end and final goal, 129 ;

all-pervading (vyāpaka), 190 ;

bodiless (aliṅga), 190-3 ;

invisible but apprehended by heart and thought, 194 ;

knowledge of whom leads to freedom and immortality, 190, 194.

Puruṣottama, 132, 139.

Radhakrishnan, Sir, S., 47, 113.

Rāmānuja, vii, ix, 33, 78, 113-5, 119, 120, 128, 135-7, 166, 168, 177, 182, 195.

Ram Mohan Rāy, 88, 91, 108.

Ranade, R. D., 113, 115, 188, 204.

reason, intellect (buddhi, vijñāna), 123-9, 190-1, 221.

reasoning, argument (tarka), cannot reach Brahman, 85, 205.

rebirth (punar-janma), 56, 61, 162-3, 175-6.

re-death (punar-mṛtyu), 56, 61, 78, 83, 162-3, 215.

Regnaud, Paul, 108, 110, 230.

reincarnation, see rebirth.

renunciation of desire, 79.

Revelation, 112.

Rg-Veda, 5-7, 12-20, 23, 24, 56, 63, 66, 88, 101, 105, 108, 110, 116, 120, 160, 172, 178, 188.

Röer, E., 97, 98, 107, 108.

Rosetti, Christina, 169.

Rudra (or Śiva), 12, 102, 229.

ṛta, right, divine order, 119, 172.

saccidānanda, epithet of Brahman, 35.

sacrifice, of the Puruṣa, 19.

renews the power of gods and men, 21.

sustains the universe, 22, 68;

meditation on, 23 ;

All life a, 23 ;

Vājaśravasa's, 57-8 ; 215 ;

The purpose of, 67-9 ;

The Nāciketa, and its result, 69-71, 215.

knowledge through, 121.

Saguṇa Brahman, see Brahman.

Salvation, by knowledge, 24, 190ff.

faith needed for, 202.

ethical requirements for, 79, 115-116, 207.

samādhi, concentration, 93, 201 ;

ecstasy, 201, 206-8.

Sāma-Veda, 6, 7, 45, 160.

Samhitā, collection of hymns, etc., 5.

Sāṃkhya philosophy, ix, 10, 20,

elements in the Kaṭha ? 132-3, 157, 191 ;

outline of, 131.

Sāṃkhya-kārikā, 132.

Sāṃkhya-yoga, in Gītā, 93, 104.

samnyāsa, abandonment of action, 93.

sāṃparāya, passing beyond, transition, i.e. death and its meaning, 78, 83.

Samyutta Nikāya, 220.

saṃsāra, the changing world, the cycle of existence, 121, 185 ;

transmigration, 123.

Sāṇḍilya-vidyā, 31,104, 106.

Śaṅkara, vii, ix, 3, 6, 7 9, 12, 26, 32, 34, 35-7, 59-63, 65, 70, 72, 77, 79, 82, 84, 85, 88, 92, 94, 97-101, 104, 107, 108, 110, 111, 113, 116, 119, 120, 130, 132-5, 142, 147, 149, 151-161, 163-168, 171-9, 181-2, 185, 188, 193, 195, 199, 203, 210, 227, 228.

śānti, peace, 55, 72, 211.

Sarma, D. S., 149.

Satapatha Brāhmaṇa, 23, 62, 68, 73, 89, 104, 148, 156, 172.

sattva=buddhi, 190.

satyasya satyam, reality of reality, 5, 31, 37, 217-8.

Savitr̥, the stimulator, sun-god, 12, 13, 23, 89, 105, 216, 224-5.

Sāvitrī, 165.

Sāyaṇa, commentator on the Rg-Veda (d.c. 1387 A.D.), 15, 105, 218, 229, 239.

saṃyoga, saṃyujyate, complete union, 206, 223.

Schrader, F. O., 9.

scripture learning insufficient, 112.

senses, see indriyāṇi.

Serampore, vii, 216.

Sermon on the Mount, 107.

Shadow and light, the individual and Supreme selves ? 118ff.

sin, missing the mark, 1, 3, 81.

Sitārāma Śāstrī, 97, 98, 108, 149, 193, 199, 228.

Śiva (Rudra, Maḥādeva), 193.

sleep, the Self manifest in, 176-7.

Soma, pavamāna, the purifier, 105,

the guest in the jar, 172.

Spencer, Herbert, 164.

240

THE KAṬHA UPANIṢAD

Spirit, 17, 95, 99, 182.

śraddhā, faith or reverence, 57,

79, 228.

śrāddha, funeral feast, 147.

śravaṇa, scripture-hearing, 113.

Śrībhāṣya, Rāmānuja's commentary

on the Vedānta-sūtras, see

Rāmānuja.

Śrīnivāsa, commentator on Nim-

bārka's Vedānta-sūtra-bhāṣya,

śṛṅkā, chain, 70, 73, 82.

St. John, 3.

St. John's Gospel, 107.

First Epistle, 182.

St. Paul, 2, 3.

St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians,

Galatians, 116.

i. Corinthians, 2, 143.

Romans, 201.

sukṛtasya loke, meaning discussed,

sūkṣma śarīra, subtle body, 191.

sun, chariot, 14; wheel, 14;

eye of the world, 179;

abode of the blessed, 66, 89,

symbol of Brahman, 13, 14,

27, 148, 229.

sun-god or gods, 12, 89, 216.

Sūrya, sun-god, 12, 13, 161-2,

186, 216.

suṣumnā, a "vein", 209.

Svayaṃbhū, self-existent, 148.

Śvetaketu, son of Uddālaka

Āruṇi, 101.

Svetāśvatara Upaniṣad, 6-11, 15,

46-9, 88, 92, 105, 109, 120,

135, 141, 165, 178, 181, 194,

223-5.

swan (haṃsa), i.e. the sun, 170,

Taittirīya Āraṇyaka, 22, 40, 108,

165, 194.

Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa, 40, 42, 45, 56,

58, 65, 71, 148, 214-6.

Taittirīya Saṃhitā, 23, 45, 102, 105,

Taittirīya Upaniṣad, 6-10, 35, 38,

45, 55, 106.

Tāṇḍya Brāhmaṇa, 21.

tapas, heat, asceticism, 16, 17, 21,

23, 101-2, 115, 155-6, 223.

Tattvabhūṣaṇa, Sītānātha (written

also as in Bengali without

final a's), 91, 97, 98, 186, 193,

tarka, see reasoning.

tat tvam asi, That thou art, 32,

Tathāgata, title of Buddha, 44.

teacher (acārya, guru), 55, 72,

need of a, 84-6, 202, 228.

Theism, 9, 10.

Thibaut, G., 91, 98, 119, 182.

Theresa, St., 169.

Thomas, F. W., ix, 70, 139, 228.

Thumb-sized person (aṅguṣṭha-

mātra-puruṣa, q.v.

time, 100, 166.

transcendence, divine, 178.

transmigration, see rebirth.

triṇāciketa, having a triple Nāciketa,

Turner, R. L., x, 28, 70.

Tuxen, 93.

Uddālaka Āruṇi, sage, =Gautama

Āruṇi, 40, 62, 65.

Unity, Upaniṣad doctrine of, 2, 26,

163, 167-9.

Upaniṣad, meaning of, 5.

Upaniṣads, nature of, 5;

number of, 6;

list of classical, 6;

classification of, 7, 9;

date of, 8-12, 49.

uṣan, 57, 58, 65, 215.

Vāc, Word, hymn to, 108;

divine voice, 215.

Vājasaneyi Saṃhitā, 172.

Vājasaneyin school, 7, 40.

Vājaśravasa, father of Naciketas,

57, 58, 65, 215.

INDEX

241

Vaiśampāyana, seer, narrator of the Mahābhārata, 40.

104, 115, 162, 166, 180, 208, 210.

Vaiśvānara, a name of Agni, 61.

Vaivasvata, son of Vivasvat, i.e. Yama, 61.

Varuṇa, 12, 15, 188.

Vasu, a class of gods, used of Vāyu, 172.

Vāyu, 12, 25, 102, 161, 172, 177, 186.

Vedānta, ix, 95, 129, 137.

Vedānta-sūtras (Brahma-sūtras), vii, ix, 24, 33, 79, 120.

Veda, Vedas, 5-7, 101.

Vedic gods, 12, 25, 26, 161.

schools, 6, 40.

Vipaścit, a name for the Ātman, 103, 224.

Virāj, 18, 25, 28.

virāga, renunciation of desire, q.v.

Vision, of God or the Ātman, 2, 109, 187, 194.

Viṣṇu, 12, 68, 88, 102, 119, 127-8.

Viśvakarma, world-maker, 13.

Vivasvat, sun-god, 61, 66, 230.

Xenophanes, 26.

Yājñavalkya, 5, 9-11, 23, 26, 33, 34, 35-37, 42, 46, 62, 65, 83,

Yajur-Veda, 5, 7, 21, 40, 102, 105 ;

Black, prose explanations mixed with Samhitā ; White, separated, 40 ; schools of Black, 40.

Yama, god of death, 56, 59, 61, 66, 165, called Death, q.v.

Yoga, 2, 3, 23, 41, 48.

derivation, various meanings, 92-3 ;

in the Yajur-Veda, 23, 105, 224 ;

in the Gītā, 93, 223-5.

of Patañjali, 93, 197, 200, 201, 226.

in the Katha, 123-147, 150, 196-208.

the practice of, 223-5.

concluding remarks on, 226-7.

yoga-kṣema, 82.

Yoga-sūtras of Patañjali, 199, 224,

see also Patañjali.

Yoga-sūtra-bhāṣya of Vyāsa, 200.

Warren, H. C., 220.

water, 16-18.

Winternitz, M., 8.

Wordsworth, 149.

242

THE KAṬHA UPANISAD

ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA

Page xviii. Square brackets in the transliterated text denote that the

words enclosed should be omitted as hypermetrical.

P. 9, note 1, read S.K. for S.P.

21, line 11, „ Kavaṣa for Kavaṣa; also pages 218-9.

45, „ 8, „ lokās „ lokas.

74, „ 16, „ sujñeyam: so Ā and majority of MSS.: B.C. have

suvijñeyam.

3, „ sujñeyam in Nāgarī text also.

98, „ 16, „ krta akrtāt for krta-akrtāt.

110, „ 11, „ mada amadam „ mada-amadam.

114, „ 27, „ ātma-kāmasya „ ātmā-kāmasya.

122, „ 19, „ ātmā or ātmaṇ? ātmā (=ātmānam) may, like

bhoktā, be taken as predicative acc. with nom.

form, (see Macdonell, V.G.S. 196 β.). But Śaṅkara

reads ātma in the sense of śarīra and takes it

as member of the compound ātma indriya-mano-

yuktam which is adj. qualifying ātmānam under-

stood, (“ the soul, joined with body, senses, and

mind, etc.”).

126, note 3, delete 4 before Loeb.

add It is interesting to note that the car of Jagannāth at

Serampore (Mahesh) has two horses, one white

and one black, but I have not been able to obtain

any traditional explanation of the symbolism.

129, line 3, read [niyacchet].

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